State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v American Tr. Ins. Co. (2009 NY Slip Op 52607(U))

State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v American Tr. Ins. Co.

2009 NY Slip Op 52607(U) [26 Misc 3d 127(A)]

Decided on December 15, 2009

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This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company a/s/o LATANYA MOODY, Appellant,

against

American Transit Insurance Company, Respondent.

Appeal from a judgment of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Queens County (Leslie J. Purificacion, J.), entered January 9, 2008. The judgment denied a petition seeking to vacate an arbitration award and, in effect, dismissed the proceeding.

ORDERED that the judgment is modified by adding thereto a provision confirming the arbitration award; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed without costs.

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company commenced this proceeding to vacate an arbitration award rendered following mandatory arbitration. The Civil Court entered a judgment denying the petition and, in effect, dismissing the proceeding.

"An arbitration award in a mandatory arbitration proceeding will be upheld if it is supported by the evidence and is not arbitrary and capricious (see Matter of Motor Veh. Acc. Indem. Corp. v Aetna Cas. & Sur. Co., 89 NY2d 214, 223 [1996]; Matter of Kemper Ins. Co. v Westport Ins. Co., 9 AD3d 431, 432 [2004])" (Matter of State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v City of Yonkers, 21 AD3d 1110, 1111 [2005]). Since "the burden to show invalidity of any arbitral award is upon the party who brings a proceeding to set it aside" (Caso v Coffey, 41 NY2d 153, 159 [1976]), where, as here, a petitioner fails to provide the court with all of the documentary evidence upon which the arbitrator's decision rests, the petitioner fails to sustain its burden of establishing that the arbitrator's decision was arbitrary and capricious. Consequently, the Civil Court properly denied the petition. However, upon denying the petition, the court was required, pursuant to CPLR 7511 (e), to confirm the award (see Matter of Exclusive Med. & Diagnostic v Government Empls. Ins. Co., 306 AD2d 476 [2003]). The judgment is modified accordingly.