BURKE PHYSICAL THERAPY v. STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INS CO (2025)

ORDERED that the order is affirmed, with $25 costs.

In this action by a provider to recover assigned first-party no-fault benefits, plaintiff appeals from an order of the Civil Court (Heela D. Capell, J.) dated July 13, 2023, which granted defendant's motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint and denied plaintiff's cross-motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff argues on appeal that the order should be reversed and the matter remitted to the Civil Court to decide what plaintiff denominated as an amended cross-motion for summary judgment, which the court declined to consider. The court rejected that submission, which also included amended opposition to defendant's motion, as “procedurally improper,” citing CPLR 2214. In the alternative, plaintiff argues that defendant's motion should be denied.

Contrary to plaintiff's contention on appeal, the affidavit by plaintiff's owner in opposition to defendant's cross motion for summary judgment, in which he stated “that he had mailed the requested verification ‘to the extent such responses were proper and in [his] possession’ does not raise a triable issue of fact, as it does not ‘demonstrate that [plaintiff] had provided the requested verification or had set forth a reasonable justification for the failure to comply with defendant's verification requests’ ” (Burke Physical Therapy, P.C. v State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 79 Misc 3d 132[A], 2023 NY Slip Op 50794[U], * 2 [App Term, 2d Dept, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2023], quoting Burke Physical Therapy, P.C. v State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 75 Misc 3d 143[A], 2022 NY Slip Op 50623[U], *1-2 [App Term, 2d Dept, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2022]; see 11 NYCRR 65-3.5 [o]). Moreover, it was not improper for defendant to seek, during the claim verification stage, information—such as management agreements, W-2 forms, business-related bank records and lease agreements—for the purpose of determining whether plaintiff was ineligible to collect no-fault benefits due to a failure to meet licensing requirements (see 11 NYCRR 65-3.16 [a] [12]; State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v Mallela, 4 NY3d 313 [2005]; Burke 2 Physical Therapy, P.C., as Assignee of Lewis, Destiny v State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., ––– Misc 3d ––––, 2025 NY Slip Op — [appeal No. 2023-961 K C], decided herewith).

“[C]ontrary to plaintiff's argument, the denial of defendant's motion for summary judgment in a declaratory judgment action brought in the Supreme Court, Nassau County, has no preclusive effect on this case as it was not a final determination on the merits” (Burke Physical Therapy, P.C. v State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 83 Misc 3d 41, 45 [App Term, 2d Dept, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2024]). Thus, we need not consider plaintiff's contention that the Civil Court erred in declining, on procedural grounds, to consider the subsequent submission of that decision and order in support of plaintiff's “amended” cross-motion for summary judgment.

Accordingly, the order is affirmed.

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