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New York: Moving to a 'Prejudice' Standard for Late Notice?

By Lynn K. Neuner

New York has long been known as a state in which a direct liability insurer need not prove prejudice in order to prevail on a defense that the policyholder provided late notice of an occurrence or a claim. New York ranks among the minority of states following the “no prejudice” rule. According to Ostrager, Barry R. and Newman, Thomas R.: Handbook on Insurance Coverage Disputes, approximately 80% of the states require a liability insurer to prove prejudice to prevail on the late notice defense, while the remainder either follow a straight “no prejudice” rule or adopt different rules for different types of insurance policies.

In the Dec. 21, 2004 decision in Great Canal Realty Corp. v. Seneca Insurance Company, Inc., 787 N.Y.S.2d 22 (App. Div. 1st Dep't), a plurality ruling of the First Department of the Appellate Division observed that “the time has come” for New York to end its adherence to the “no prejudice” rule. 787 N.Y.S.2d at 27. Stating that “the egregious imbalance between insurer and insured needs to be corrected,” the court ruled that the insurer before it was not entitled to summary judgment because triable issues of fact existed as to whether the insurer was prejudiced by the policyholder's late notice of a potential claim. Id. at 28-29.

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