Designer Limousine, Inc. v. Auth. Transp., Inc.

176 A.D.3d 670

110 N.Y.S.3d 133

DESIGNER LIMOUSINE, INC., et al., Respondents,

v.AUTHORITY TRANSPORTATION, INC., etc., et al., Defendants,Michael Cassano, Appellant.

2017–10949

Index No. 2092/16

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, New York.

Argued—May 10, 2019

October 2, 2019

London Fischer LLP, New York, N.Y. (Morgan A. Corley and Brian A. Kalman of counsel), for appellant.

Anthony A. Capetola, Williston Park, N.Y. (Michael C. Barrows of counsel), for respondents.

CHERYL E. CHAMBERS, J.P., JOSEPH J. MALTESE, COLLEEN D. DUFFY, LINDA CHRISTOPHER, JJ.

DECISION & ORDER

In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for fraud, the defendant Michael Cassano appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Arthur M. Diamond, J.), entered August 30, 2017. The order, insofar as appealed from, denied that branch of that defendant's motion which was for summary judgment dismissing the fraud cause of action insofar as asserted against him.

ORDERED that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.

The plaintiff Designer Limousine, Inc. (hereinafter Designer), a limousine company, operated a fleet of buses and other vehicles for hire in New York. The plaintiff Kenneth Caldwell was its principal. On several occasions in late 2011 and early 2012, the defendant Michael Cassano, who was in the business of conducting automobile damage appraisals, appraised damage to and the cost of repairing certain of Designer's vehicles in connection with claims for coverage Designer made to its insurer.

In March 2016, the plaintiffs commenced this action alleging, inter alia, that Cassano had falsely inflated the damage amounts he reported in his appraisals as part of a scheme carried out with the other defendants to defraud Designer's insurer. The plaintiffs alleged that Cassano's fraudulent conduct caused Designer's insurance premiums to increase exponentially and, in turn, forced the company to discontinue operations.

Cassano moved, inter alia, for summary judgment dismissing the fraud cause of action insofar as asserted against him. He argued, inter alia, that his alleged fraudulent conduct was not a proximate cause of the plaintiffs' claimed losses, and that an August 2012 fatal accident involving one of Designer's buses and the accident's impact on the business constituted superseding causes of the plaintiffs' claimed losses, relieving him of any liability.

The Supreme Court denied that branch of Cassano's motion which was for summary judgment dismissing the fraud cause of action insofar as asserted against him. Cassano appeals.

To establish a fraud claim, a plaintiff must show that the defendant's alleged fraudulent conduct was a direct and proximate cause of his or her claimed losses (see Ambac Assur. Corp. v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., 151 A.D.3d 83, 86, 56 N.Y.S.3d 21, affd 31 N.Y.3d 569, 81 N.Y.S.3d 816, 106 N.E.3d 1176 ; Greentech Research LLC v. Wissman, 104 A.D.3d 540, 961 N.Y.S.2d 406 ). There may be more than one proximate cause of a plaintiff's injuries (see Gray v. Air Excel Serv. Corp., 171 A.D.3d 1026, 1028, 98 N.Y.S.3d 259 ; Santaiti v. Town of Ramapo, 162 A.D.3d 921, 926, 80 N.Y.S.3d 288 ). However, an independent intervening act may constitute a superseding cause, and be sufficient to relieve defendants of liability, "if it is of such an extraordinary nature or so attenuated from the defendants' conduct that responsibility for the injury should not reasonably be attributed to them" ( Gordon v. Eastern Ry. Supply, 82 N.Y.2d 555, 562, 606 N.Y.S.2d 127, 626 N.E.2d 912 ; see Weiss v. Hager, 151 A.D.3d 906, 909, 58 N.Y.S.3d 403 ). Although the issue may be decided as a matter of law where...