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Timothy PRYER, et al., plaintiffs, v. DeMATTEIS ORGANIZATIONS, INC., defendant third-party plaintiff, et al., defendants; County of Nassau, third-party defendant-appellant; Ahmuty, Demers & McManus, nonparty respondent.
In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, etc., the defendant County of Nassau appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Alpert, J.), dated March 17, 1998, which granted the motion of nonparty Ahmuty, Demers & McManus, its attorney of record, for leave to withdraw as its counsel.
ORDERED that the order is reversed, on the law, with costs, and the motion is denied, without prejudice to the commencement of a declaratory judgment action by Amerisure Companies.
The motion of Ahmuty, Demers & McManus to withdraw as counsel for the County of Nassau was a “poor vehicle” for testing the propriety of the disclaimer of coverage which had been issued by the County's insurance carrier, Amerisure Companies (Brothers v. Burt, 27 N.Y.2d 905, 906, 317 N.Y.S.2d 626, 265 N.E.2d 922; see, Garcia v. Zito, 242 A.D.2d 258, 661 N.Y.S.2d 33; Laura Accessories v. A.P.A. Warehouses, 140 A.D.2d 182, 527 N.Y.S.2d 795; Rusolo v. Skate Odyssey, 109 A.D.2d 875, 487 N.Y.S.2d 67; Monaghan v. Meade, 91 A.D.2d 1014, 457 N.Y.S.2d 886). The appropriate vehicle for resolving a dispute over the coverage offered by a policy is a declaratory judgment action in which the County would be able to adequately litigate the facts of the insurance carrier's disclaimer (see Laura Accessories v. A.P.A. Warehouses, supra, at 182, 527 N.Y.S.2d 795; Monaghan v. Meade, supra, at 1015, 457 N.Y.S.2d 886).
MEMORANDUM BY THE COURT.
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Decided: March 01, 1999
Court: Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, New York.
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