Indemnity Insurance Co. of North America v. St. Paul Mercury Insurance

74 A.D.3d 21, 900 N.Y.S.2d 24
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedApril 22, 2010
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 74 A.D.3d 21 (Indemnity Insurance Co. of North America v. St. Paul Mercury Insurance) 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
Indemnity Insurance Co. of North America v. St. Paul Mercury Insurance, 74 A.D.3d 21, 900 N.Y.S.2d 24 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Richter, J.

In this insurance coverage dispute, plaintiff Insurance Indemnity Company of North America (IICNA) seeks reimburse[23]*23ment from defendants St. Paul Mercury Insurance Company (St. Paul) and Yonkers Contracting Company, Inc. (Yonkers) for a $2 million payment IICNA made to settle an underlying personal injury suit. In the underlying action, Eugene Flood, an employee of Yonkers, was performing restoration work on the Manhattan Bridge when he was injured. Yonkers was retained by the City of New York as the general contractor on the restoration project. As part of this project, Yonkers hired subcontractor Romano Enterprises of New York, Inc. (Romano) to paint certain portions of the bridge. In painting the bridge, Romano had draped a series of steel cables along the sides of the bridge to serve as supports from which to hang scaffolding.

Two days before Flood’s accident, Ronald Taylor, a Yonkers superintendent, spotted a cable left on the bridge by Romano that would interfere with Yonkers’s work. Taylor asked John Graham, a Romano foreman, to remove the cable. Flood also told Graham that the cable had to be removed. Graham assured both men that he would make sure the cable was taken down, but failed to do so. On the day of the accident, Yonkers workers attempted to hoist a five-ton iron beam horizontally through the bridge’s lattices and suspension cables. Halfway through the process, the beam became stuck on the cable left by Romano. Flood climbed onto the beam to investigate and walked along its length looking for the obstruction. As he reached the end of the beam, the beam tilted and Romano’s cable snapped, hitting Flood in the ankle and injuring him.

Under its subcontract with Yonkers, Romano agreed to (1) indemnify and hold harmless the City and Yonkers from any claims arising from or in connection with any acts or omissions in the performance of Romano’s work and (2) procure all necessary and adequate insurance naming the City and Yonkers as additional insureds. In accordance with the subcontract, Romano obtained a policy with nonparty Royal Insurance Company of America (Royal), which provided for $1 million in primary general liability coverage. Romano’s excess insurer, IICNA, supplied umbrella excess liability coverage in the amount of $10 million. The City and Yonkers were additional insureds under both the Royal and IICNA policies. St. Paul insured Yonkers, and the City as an additional insured, under a commercial policy with general liability coverage of $1 million and umbrella coverage of $5 million.

In January 2001, Flood commenced the underlying action against the City and Romano, asserting claims under the Labor [24]*24Law as well as under principles of common-law negligence.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
74 A.D.3d 21, 900 N.Y.S.2d 24, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indemnity-insurance-co-of-north-america-v-st-paul-mercury-insurance-nyappdiv-2010.