Tower Ins. Co. of N.Y. v Dyker Contrs., Inc.
2008 NY Slip Op 00426 [47 AD3d 522]
January 24, 2008
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, March 12, 2008


Tower Insurance Company of New York, Respondent,
v
Dyker Contractors, Inc., Appellant, et al., Defendants.

[*1] Composto & Composto, Brooklyn (Eric C. Bryant of counsel), for appellant.

Max W. Gershweir, New York City, for respondent.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Edward H. Lehner, J.), entered September 13, 2006, which, to the extent appealed from, granted plaintiff's motion for summary judgment declaring that it had no duty to defend or indemnify defendant Dyker Contractors, Inc. in an underlying personal injury action, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Dyker failed to raise a triable issue of fact whether its belief in its nonliability was reasonable, so as to excuse its nine-month delay in notifying plaintiff of the occurrence (see White v City of New York, 81 NY2d 955, 957 [1993]). The injury resulted from the collapse of a stairway at the job site at which Dyker was general contractor, Dyker's foreman notified its principal of the accident on the day it happened, and the injured party appeared on site soon thereafter with his leg in a cast (see e.g. Pendill v Furry Paws, Inc., 29 AD3d 453 [2006]). Concur—Tom, J.P., Saxe, Friedman and Buckley, JJ.