Case Name: State Farm Automobile Insurance Company, Respondent, v. Jose Ovola, Defendant, and Jean Cab Corp., Appellant and Third-Party Plaintiff-Appellant. Lorraine D. Lazo, Third-Party Defendant-Respondent
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1994-11-15
Citations: 209 A.D.2d 273
Docket Number: 
Parties: State Farm Automobile Insurance Company, Respondent, v Jose Ovola, Defendant, and Jean Cab Corp., Appellant and Third-Party Plaintiff-Appellant. Lorraine D. Lazo, Third-Party Defendant-Respondent.
Judges: 
Reporter: Appellate Division Reports
Volume: 209
Pages: 273–274

Head Matter:
State Farm Automobile Insurance Company, Respondent, v Jose Ovola, Defendant, and Jean Cab Corp., Appellant and Third-Party Plaintiff-Appellant. Lorraine D. Lazo, Third-Party Defendant-Respondent.
[619 NYS2d 536]

Opinion:
—Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Edward Lehner, J.), entered June 1, 1993, which granted third-party defendant's motion for summary judgment and dismissed the third-party complaint, and which granted plaintiffs cross-motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability, unanimously reversed, on the law, and the motion and cross-motion denied, without costs.
Neither third-party defendant nor plaintiff was entitled to summary judgment here, where each failed in meeting the burden to establish the absence of material issues of fact (see, Gibson v American Export Isbrandtsen Lines, 125 AD2d 65, 74; Winegrad v New York Univ. Med. Ctr., 64 NY2d 851, 853). The record indicates that material issues of fact exist, such as whether the third-party defendant was responsible in any way for causing the collision or collisions, and precisely how and by whom the injuries to plaintiffs insured were caused and in what proportions, if determinable. Moreover, it was error to determine issues, on the motion and cross-motion, instead of merely identifying them (see, Sillman v Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., 3 NY2d 395, 404). Concur—Carro, J. P., Wallach, Kupferman, Ross and Williams, JJ.