| Morovati v Auto Repair of Great Neck, N.Y., Inc. |
| 2008 NY Slip Op 52643(U) [22 Misc 3d 132(A)] |
| Decided on November 26, 2008 |
| Appellate Term, Second Department |
| Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. |
| This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports. |
Appeal from an order of the District Court of Nassau County, First District (Andrew M. Engel, J.),
dated February 16, 2007. The order, insofar as appealed from, granted the cross motion of defendants
GEICO Insurance Agency and Dominick Abbriano for summary judgment dismissing the complaint as
against them.
Order, insofar as appealed from, affirmed without costs.
Plaintiff brought this action against defendants Auto Repair of Great Neck, N.Y., Inc. (Auto
Repair), GEICO Insurance Agency (GEICO) and Dominick Abbriano (Abbriano) to recover damages
allegedly sustained due to the improper repair of his
vehicle following a motor vehicle accident. He alleged, inter alia, that defendant Auto Repair was
negligent in failing to properly perform the repairs to his vehicle, that defendant Abbriano, GEICO's
claims adjuster, breached a duty of care to him in failing to provide a proper initial repair estimate, and
that GEICO breached its contract with him, which resulted in the allegedly [*2]negligent repairs and in failing to guaranty said repairs. Auto Repair
moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, and GEICO and Abbriano cross-moved for the
same relief. Insofar as is relevant to this appeal, the District Court granted the cross motion for
summary judgment of GEICO and Abbriano, dismissing plaintiff's complaint as against them. This
appeal by plaintiff ensued.
Plaintiff's contention that the District Court erred in granting partial summary judgment to defendant Auto Repair is not properly before this court since plaintiff's notice of appeal is limited to "the part of the order granting Summary Judgement to Defendants Geico Insurance Agency and Dominick Abbriano" (see Dingle v Pergament Home Ctrs., 141 AD2d 798 [1988]).
We reject plaintiff's contention that the District Court erred in granting summary judgment to defendants GEICO and Abbriano. The proponent of a summary judgment motion must make a prima facie showing of entitlement to judgment as a matter of law, tendering sufficient evidence to demonstrate the absence of any material issues of fact (Winegrad v New York Univ. Med. Ctr., 64 NY2d 851, 853 [1985]; Zuckerman v City of New York, 49 NY2d 557, 562 [1980]). Once this showing is made, the burden shifts to the party opposing the motion for summary judgment to produce evidentiary proof in admissible form sufficient to establish the existence of material issues of fact which require a trial of the action (Alvarez v Prospect Hosp., 68 NY2d 320 [1986]; Zuckerman, 49 NY2d at 562).
While defendants GEICO and Abbriano demonstrated their entitlement to summary judgment by
submitting the affidavit of Abbriano as well as the repair estimates, plaintiff failed to demonstrate by
admissible evidence the existence of a factual issue requiring a trial of the action as to said defendants.
Other than his own conclusory affidavit, plaintiff failed to provide any evidence showing that defendant
Abbriano owed him any duty, that Abbriano's repair estimates were improperly performed, or that
plaintiff suffered damages as a result of the allegedly improperly performed repair estimates. Similarly,
with respect to defendant GEICO, plaintiff failed to show that GEICO breached its contract of
insurance with plaintiff or that it breached
any warranty with respect to the replaced parts. Accordingly, the court below did not err in
granting GEICO's and Abbriano's cross motion, and the order of the court below, insofar as appealed
from, is affirmed.
Rudolph, P.J, McCabe and Molia, JJ., concur.
Decision Date: November 26, 2008