Appeal from a decision of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Kings County (Bernard J. Graham, J.), dated November 21, 2006, deemed from a judgment of the same court entered June 8, 2007 (see CPLR 5520 [c]). The judgment, after a nonjury trial, awarded plaintiff the principal sum of $4,527.71.

ORDERED that the judgment is reversed without costs and the complaint is dismissed.

At the trial of this action by a provider to recover assigned first-party no-fault benefits, the Civil Court admitted a series of documents into evidence over defendant's objection. The documents, which included NF-3 verification of treatment forms, were admitted based upon the testimony of plaintiff's sole witness, the billing manager for Advanced Health Care Solutions (AHCS), a company that was hired by plaintiff to handle the submission of plaintiff's no-fault claim forms. After the entry of a judgment in favor of plaintiff, defendant appealed from the court's decision. We deem defendant's appeal to be from the judgment (see CPLR 5520 [c]).

For the reasons stated in Andrew Carothers, M.D., P.C. v GEICO Indem. Co. (24 Misc 3d 19 [App Term, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2009]), we conclude that plaintiff did not set forth a prima facie case. Plaintiff's witness failed to establish that he had personal knowledge of plaintiff's business practices and procedures. Moreover, given his testimony regarding the nature of the relationship between AHCS and plaintiff, the billing manager was incapable of laying the requisite foundation under CPLR 4518 to establish that the documents which were admitted into evidence were plaintiff's business records and, therefore, admissible pursuant to the business records exception
to the rule against hearsay (cf. People v DiSalvo, 284 AD2d 547 [2001]; Plymouth Rock Fuel [*2]Corp. v Leucadia, Inc., 117 AD2d 727 [1986]). Accordingly, the judgment is reversed and the complaint dismissed.

Rios, J.P., Pesce and Golia, JJ., concur.
Decision Date: December 15, 2009