DEFENDANT’S ALLEGED FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ITS TRUCK LED TO AN ACCIDENT IN WHICH A VAN DRIVEN BY PLAINTIFF’S EMPLOYEE STRUCK DEFENDANT’S EMPLOYEE; A LAWSUIT BY DEFENDANT’S EMPLOYEE AGAINST PLAINTIFF CULMINATED IN A $900,000 SETTLEMENT; PLAINTIFF ALLEGED THE RESULTING INCREASED INSURANCE PREMIUMS FORCED PLAINTIFF OUT OF BUSINESS; THE LOSS OF PLAINTIFF’S BUSINESS WAS NOT A FORESEEABLE CONSEQUENCE OF DEFENDANT’S ALLEGED FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ITS TRUCK (FOURTH DEPT).
The Fourth Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the defendant’s negligence was not a proximate cause of the damages suffered by plaintiff. Two wheels fell off defendant’s dump truck. Plaintiff’s (Able Medical’s) employee struck one of the wheels and then struck defendant’s employee, the truck driver. Defendant’s employee sued the plaintiff and the matter was settled for $900,000. Plaintiff alleged the increase in insurance premiums resulting from the accident and settlement forced plaintiff to go out of business:
… [P]laintiffs’ theory of causation is based on a lengthy chain of events spanning the course of two and a half years. In their complaint, plaintiffs alleged that defendant failed to maintain its truck, that rear wheels fell off of the truck causing a motor vehicle accident, that the accident resulted in a lawsuit, and that the settlement of the lawsuit ultimately resulted in an increase in insurance premiums for plaintiffs, which caused plaintiffs to close their business. On its motion, defendant established that those alleged economic injuries were not a foreseeable consequence of defendant’s alleged negligent maintenance of its truck and, thus, the connection between defendant’s activities and plaintiffs’ economic losses is too tenuous and remote to permit recovery … . Able Med. Transp., Inc. v Paragon Envtl. Constr., Inc., 2021 NY Slip Op 02687, Fourth Dept 4-30-21
