SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department

941 

CA 10-02440 

PRESENT: SMITH, J.P., FAHEY, PERADOTTO, LINDLEY, AND SCONIERS, JJ. 

 

FARM FAMILY CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, 

PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, 

V MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

BRADY FARMS, INC., DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT. 

 

HURWITZ & FINE, P.C., BUFFALO (DAN D. KOHANE OF COUNSEL), FOR

PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT. 

CHAMBERLAIN D’AMANDA OPPENHEIMER & GREENFIELD LLP, ROCHESTER (HENRY R.

IPPOLITO OF COUNSEL), FOR DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT. 

 

Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Genesee County

(Robert C. Noonan, A.J.), entered March 31, 2010 in a declaratory

judgment action. The judgment declared that plaintiff is obligated to

indemnify defendant for certain payments. 

It is hereby ORDERED that the judgment so appealed from is

unanimously reversed on the law without costs, the motion is denied

and judgment is granted in favor of plaintiff as follows:

It is ADJUDGED and DECLARED that plaintiff has no duty

to defend or indemnify defendant with respect to any

financial liabilities incurred in connection with the death

of John T. Nichols under the Special Farm Package “10”

policy. 

Memorandum: Plaintiff commenced this action seeking a

declaration that it has no duty to defend or indemnify defendant, the

owner and operator of a farm, in connection with fatal injuries

sustained by defendant’s employee (hereafter, decedent) while working

at the farm. At the time of the accident, defendant was insured under

a primary policy issued by plaintiff, entitled the Special Farm

Package “10” policy (hereafter, Package policy), as well as an

umbrella policy also issued by plaintiff. Defendant did not have

workers’ compensation insurance at that time. Supreme Court

thereafter granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment seeking a

declaration that, inter alia, plaintiff is obligated to defend and

indemnify defendant under the Package policy “for all losses arising

out of the death of” decedent. In granting the motion, the court

agreed with defendant that the Package policy exclusions on which

plaintiff relied do not operate to defeat coverage for defendant. 

According to defendant’s attorney, however, the court indicated that
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CA 10-02440 

it would not rule on the issue whether the workers’ compensation award

issued against defendant in connection with decedent’s death falls

within the coverage of the Package policy because there was no such

motion before it seeking that relief. 

After multiple chambers conferences, defendant made a second

motion for summary judgment seeking a declaration that, inter alia,

the workers’ compensation award was covered by the Package policy. 

The court granted the motion, declaring that plaintiff is obligated

under the Package policy to indemnify defendant, inter alia, for

payments required to be made to decedent’s widow in accordance with

the workers’ compensation award, as well as for funeral expenses

expended by the widow and for reasonable fees and expenses paid by

defendant to its attorneys in connection with both the workers’

compensation proceedings and this action. We reverse. 

We note at the outset that we reject plaintiff’s contention that

the court erred in entertaining defendant’s second motion for summary

judgment. Although it is well settled that “successive motions for

summary judgment are generally disfavored” (Rupert v Gates & Adams,

P.C., 83 AD3d 1393, 1395), such motions for summary judgment are

permitted where there is “newly discovered evidence or other

sufficient cause” (Giardina v Lippes, 77 AD3d 1290, 1291, lv denied 16

NY3d 702). Here, the court did not rule on the issue whether the

subject workers’ compensation award is within the coverage of the

Package policy because there was no motion then before it seeking that

relief, and the record establishes that the second motion was, if not

encouraged, certainly not discouraged by the court. We thus conclude

that “ ‘there was sufficient cause for defendant[’s] [second] 

motion’ ” (Tallie v Rochester Gas & Elec. Corp., 68 AD3d 1808, 1810).

We further conclude, however, that the court erred in granting

defendant’s second motion. “In determining a dispute over insurance

coverage, we first look to the language of the policy . . . We

construe the policy in a way that ‘affords a fair meaning to all of

the language employed by the parties in the contract and leaves no

provision without force and effect’ ” (Consolidated Edison Co. of N.Y.

v Allstate Ins. Co., 98 NY2d 208, 221-222; see Raymond Corp. v

National Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa., 5 NY3d 157, 162,

rearg denied 5 NY3d 825). “As with the construction of contracts

generally, ‘unambiguous provisions of an insurance contract must be

given their plain and ordinary meaning, and the interpretation of such

provisions is a question of law for the court’ ” (Vigilant Ins. Co. v

Bear Stearns Cos., Inc., 10 NY3d 170, 177). 

Here, the Package policy sets forth in relevant part that

plaintiff “provide[s] coverage . . . if a claim is made or a suit is

brought against an INSURED for damages because of BODILY INJURY or

PROPERTY DAMAGE caused by an OCCURRENCE to which [the] coverage [in

the policy] applies.” The workers’ compensation claim made on

decedent’s behalf establishes that his estate elected to forego the

recovery of damages through a civil action and instead sought to

pursue what was essentially a claim for the workers’ compensation

insurance benefits defendant should have secured for him. Pursuant to
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CA 10-02440 

Workers’ Compensation Law § 26-a (1) (a), an employer that failed to

secure workers’ compensation benefits for an injured worker is liable

for the payment of benefits awarded to the injured worker. Thus, in

effect, defendant employer is substituted for the insurer it failed to

hire as the party responsible for payment of the workers’ compensation

benefits awarded to decedent. Consequently, the liability of

defendant to decedent arises from defendant’s failure to meet its

statutory insurance procurement obligation rather than from the bodily

injury sustained by decedent, and we conclude that there is no

coverage for such liability under the Package policy (cf. Charles F.

Evans Co. v Zurich Ins. Co., 95 NY2d 779).

Finally, in view of the uncontroverted proof in the record that

the workers’ compensation award issued against defendant in connection

with decedent’s death is outside the scope of coverage for defendant

under the Package policy, we exercise our power to search the record

and grant summary judgment to plaintiff (see CPLR 3212 [b]; Merritt

Hill Vineyards v Windy Hgts. Vineyard, 61 NY2d 106, 111).

Entered: September 30, 2011 Patricia L. Morgan

Clerk of the Court