A Syracuse (NY) City Court judge has denied a motion by Nationwide Insurance seeking dismissal of an “assignment of proceeds” case brought against the insurer by Nick Orso’s Body Shop. The shop sued on behalf of two customers for repair costs not paid for by Nationwide, which argued that the customers’ policies prohibited them from assigning claimed losses to another party without the insurer’s prior permission.
Judge Rory McMahon, citing a decision in a similar case last fall also involving Nick Orso’s Body Shop, ruled that anti-assignment clauses are valid for assignments prior to a loss and claim (when that could impact the insurer’s exposure) but not after. Orso’s attorney argued successfully that Nationwide has no interest in preventing a post-loss assignment of proceeds “other than an insurer’s desire to make it as cumbersome as possible for the insured to obtain what is owed under the insurance contract.”
The judge, however, did not find that Nationwide’s motion for dismissal of the case was brought in bad faith, and he therefore denied the shop’s request to have its court and attorney costs paid for by the insurer.
