Medtech Med. Supply, Inc. v Country-Wide Ins. Co. (2023 NY Slip Op 50277(U))

Glinkenhouse Queen, Esqs. (Alan Queen of counsel), for appellant.

Thomas Torto, for respondent.

Appeal from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Queens County (John C.V. Katsanos, J.), dated March 27, 2020. The order denied, as moot, plaintiff’s motion to recalculate, from a simple rate to a compound rate, an award of statutory no-fault interest in a judgment entered March 23, 2017.

ORDERED that the order is reversed, with $30 costs, and plaintiff’s motion to recalculate, from a simple rate to a compound rate, an award of statutory no-fault interest in a judgment entered March 23, 2017 is granted.

Plaintiff commenced this action in 2000 to recover first-party no-fault benefits for supplies it furnished to its assignor as a result of a motor vehicle accident that occurred on June 11, 1998. Defendant appeared and answered. On June 27, 2001, the State of New York dissolved plaintiff by proclamation. On or about July 15, 2003, the parties entered into a settlement agreement. It is uncontroverted that defendant did not pay the amount set forth in the settlement. On March 23, 2017, plaintiff had a judgment entered, ex parte, in the total sum of $4,781.27, including $2,972.06 in interest. In December of 2018, plaintiff moved to recalculate, from a simple rate to a compound rate, the award of statutory no-fault interest in the March 23, [*2]2017 judgment pursuant to the pre-2002 regulations, which required no-fault interest to be calculated at a compound rate (see former 11 NYCRR 65.15 [h] [1]). Defendant opposed the motion and the motion was marked fully submitted on October 21, 2019.

In November of 2019, defendant moved to, in effect, vacate the March 23, 2017 judgment and, upon such vacatur, to “dismiss[ ] the complaint on the ground that plaintiff lacks standing to maintain this action and collect on the judgment . . . since the Secretary of State dissolved plaintiff and annulled its authority on June 27, 2001, and plaintiff has failed to wind up its affairs within a reasonable time as a matter of law” or, in the alternative, “upon the ground that plaintiff failed to comply with CPLR 5003-a.” By order entered March 26, 2020, the Civil Court granted defendant’s motion, vacated the judgment and, upon such vacatur, dismissed the complaint.

On appeal, this court, by order dated April 1, 2022, reversed the March 26, 2020 order, denied defendant’s motion to vacate the judgment and stated that the matter was being remitted to the Civil Court to determine plaintiff’s pending December 2018 motion (Medtech Med. Supply, Inc. v Country-Wide Ins. Co., 74 Misc 3d 137[A], 2022 NY Slip Op 50304[U] [App Term, 2d Dept, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2022]). At that time, this court was unaware of the fact that the Civil Court, by order dated March 27, 2020, had denied, as moot, plaintiff’s pending motion to recalculate the interest awarded in the March 23, 2017 judgment. Plaintiff now appeals from the March 27, 2020 order.

As this court has reversed the March 26, 2020 order granting defendant’s motion to vacate the March 23, 2017 judgment, and that judgment has been reinstated, plaintiff’s motion is no longer moot.

Rather than remitting the matter to the Civil Court for a determination of the merits of plaintiff’s motion to recalculate the interest awarded in the March 23, 2017 judgment, in the interest of judicial economy, we address the merits and find that the claim is governed by the former regulations providing for compound interest (see Biotech Surgical Supply v Country Wide Ins. Co., 75 Misc 3d 128[A], 2022 NY Slip Op 50376[U] [App Term, 2d Dept, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2022]; G.N.S. Med. Supplies, Inc. v Country Wide Ins. Co., 66 Misc 3d 127[A], 2019 NY Slip Op 52035[U] [App Term, 2d Dept, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2019]; Seaside Rehabilitation v Allstate Ins. Co., 63 Misc 3d 162[A], 2019 NY Slip Op 50918[U] [App Term, 2d Dept, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2019]; see also Matter of B.Z. Chiropractic, P.C. v Allstate Ins. Co., 197 AD3d 144 [2021]) and that defendant’s argument that plaintiff’s motion should be denied because of a delay in entering the judgment after the settlement is without merit (see Biotech Surgical Supply, 2022 NY Slip Op 50376[U]; Seaside Rehabilitation, 2019 NY Slip Op 50918[U]).

Accordingly, the order is reversed and plaintiff’s motion to recalculate, from a simple rate to a compound rate, the award of statutory no-fault interest in the judgment entered March 23, 2017 is granted.

TOUSSAINT, P.J., BUGGS and MUNDY, JJ., concur.