Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.

209 A.D. 352, 204 N.Y.S. 791, 1924 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8630
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMay 16, 1924
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 209 A.D. 352 (Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 209 A.D. 352, 204 N.Y.S. 791, 1924 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8630 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1924).

Opinion

McAvoy, J.:

Defendants Richard A. Chartrand, Jr., and Richard A. Chartrand, guardian ad litem of said Richard A. Chartrand, Jr., appeal from [353]*353an order which stays and restrains said defendants, pendente lite, from transferring, paying out, disposing of or withdrawing in any way, a part of certain moneys and other property to the extent of SI,900, of which the defendant United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company is the depositary.

The then infant Chartrand, during the period of his employment by plaintiff’s assured in New Jersey, was injured through the negligence of the defendant Proctor. . He recovered a judgment against Proctor for such injuries in the Bronx County Supreme Court. Plaintiff claims that certain moneys were paid to Chartrand by the insurance carrier in New Jersey as compensation under the New Jersey Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1911, as amended in 1913, and that under said act it has a lien, to the extent of such payments, upon the judgment obtained by Chartrand against Proctor after suit brought in New York. The proceeds of this judgment are now on deposit with the defendant United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company.

In a previous action for the same relief which was hefe on a former appeal (206 App. Div. 510), to which the then infant Chartrand was not made a party, we left undecided the question as to whether or not the New Jersey Workmen’s Compensation Act gave a lien which could be enforced against the proceeds of the judgment procured in this State by the infant Chartrand against Proctor. We merely pointed out then that the elder Chartrand, who had been appointed guardian ad litem in the infant Chartrand’s negligence action against Proctor, was not properly made a party to the action, and intimated that as the complaint in that action then stood a cause of equitable cognizance was not set forth in the complaint.

The then infant Chartrand is now of age, and while now the proceeds of the former action are his, the plaintiff has made both Chartrands parties defendants without apparent propriety or necessity, but we pass this feature to resort to the- merits.

The present action is brought for equitable relief and demands a lien upon the proceeds of the judgment obtained by the infant Chartrand against Proctor in the neghgence suit and a foreclosure of the lien is sought in the prayer of the equitable bill.

Prior to the service of this complaint, plaintiff had obtained a temporary injunction restraining appellants from using any of the moneys so received until the hearing and determination of a motion made returnable in the ex parte injunction order.

At the Special Term hearing the ruling was that a hen was given by the New Jersey Workmen’s Compensation Act and that the present action for its enforcement lies in equity.

[354]*354Without this finding that the New Jersey statute gave plaintiff the hen claimed, an injunction to impound the fund could not have issued.

The complaint sets forth the New Jersey Workmen’s Compensation Act relied upon, and alleges that Chartrand, Jr., while employed by the Hedden Company in New Jersey, was injured on July 14, 1918, and that plaintiff, as insurance carrier for the Hedden Company, paid to Chartrand, Jr., as compensation the sum of $1,368.50; that in an action brought by Chartrand, Jr., through Richard A.. Chartrand, as guardian, in the Supreme Court, Bronx county, against W. Ross Proctor, who was responsible for the injuries, a judgment for over $9,000 was obtained, and that Proctor paid over said judgment to Chartrand without deducting therefrom the moneys previously paid by plaintiff to Chartrand as compensation.

Plaintiff alleges that prior to the payment of said judgment and on May 13, 1919, the Hedden Company filed with W. Ross Proctor, the third party against whom action had been brought by the injured employee, a statement of the compensation agreement between itself and its employee, Richard A. Chartrand, Jr.”

Plaintiff further alleges that it was pursuant to agreement ” subrogated to all the rights of the Hedden Company, and demands judgment for the sum of $1,368.50 and for a hen to that extent upon the proceeds of the Proctor judgment now on deposit with the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company. No personal judgment is asked against the elder Chartrand.

The question is whether or not, under the Workmen’s Compensation Act of New Jersey, plaintiff has a cause of action in equity in this State against appellants and a hen upon the proceeds of the judgment obtained in New York against the third party responsible for the injuries.,

A reading of the provisions of the New Jersey Workmen’s Compensation Act indicates that it does not give plaintiff a hen upon the proceeds of the judgment obtained in New York by the infant Chartrand against the third party responsible for the injuries.

The New Jersey Workmen’s Compensation Act,

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Bluebook (online)
209 A.D. 352, 204 N.Y.S. 791, 1924 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8630, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hartford-accident-indemnity-co-v-united-states-fidelity-guaranty-co-nyappdiv-1924.