Hubbell v. Trans World Life Ins. Co. of New York
Cases that cite this one
53 later published cases cite this decision. The 25 that cite it most often are listed here.
- Eccobay Sportswear, Inc. v. Providence Washington Insurance (District Court, S.D. New York 1984)
- Vicinanzo Ex Rel. Vicinanzo v. Brunschwig & Fils, Inc. (District Court, S.D. New York 1990)
- Legurnic v. Ciccone (District Court, E.D. New York 2014)
- Excelsior Capital LLC v. Allen (2d Cir. 2013)
- Virgilio v. City of New York (2d Cir. 2005)
- Virgilio v. City of New York (2d Cir. 2005)
- Porn v. National Grange Mutual Insurance (1st Cir. 1996)
- John W. Riordan Jane Fox v. Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Company (2d Cir. 1992)
- Bausch & Lomb Inc. v. Sonomed Technology, Inc. (District Court, E.D. New York 1992)
- Nelson v. Stanley Blacker, Inc. (District Court, S.D. New York 1989)
- Smith v. Lightning Bolt Productions, Inc. (2d Cir. 1988)
- Avnet, Inc. v. American Motorists Insurance (District Court, S.D. New York 1988)
- Nunez De Villavicencio v. Cerny (District Court, S.D. New York 1987)
- Mead v. Burns (Conn. 1986)
- Smith v. Fireman's Fund Insurance (District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania 1983)
- Smith v. Lightning Bolt Productions, Inc. (2d Cir. 1988)
- Royal Globe Insurance v. Chock Full O'Nuts Corp. (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1982)
- Kent v. Jones (New York Supreme Court, Queens County 2025)
- Van Leeuwen Ice Cream LLC v. Rebel Creamery LLC (District Court, E.D. New York 2024)
- White Mgt. Corp. v. Aley (New York Supreme Court 2023)
- Koch v. Liberty Mutual Group, Inc. (United States District Court, Nebraska 2022)
- Barker v. Aramark Uniform & Careers Apparel LLC (District Court, E.D. New York 2021)
- Cooper v. Upstairs, Downstairs of New York, Inc. (District Court, S.D. New York 2021)
- Hartwick v. Annucci (District Court, N.D. New York 2020)
- Ben Villarreal Jr., Cleo Martinez, and Lacasa Martinez Tex Mex, Inc. v. United Fire & Casualty Company D/B/A United Fire Group (Iowa Ct. App. 2015)
This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.
Opinion
OPINION OF THE COURT
Memorandum.
The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed, without costs.
Plaintiff seeks recovery for compensatory and punitive damages for defendant insurer’s alleged bad faith and unlawful conduct in dealing with her claim under her deceased husband’s insurance policy. So much of the complaint as seeks compensatory damages is barred by the doctrine of res judicata. There is nothing to indicate the present action grows out *901 of any facts not known when the prior action was brought to recover on the policy but which subsequently came to light either in the course of the insurer’s defense of the first action or thereafter (see 5 Weinstein-Korn-Miller, NY Civ Prac, par 5011.17, pp 50-104 to 50-105).
Moreover, assuming section 40-d of the Insurance Law can be read to create a private cause of action, the allegations of the complaint were insufficient to bring the case within that statute, which proscribes only unfair business practices (Halpin v Prudential Ins. Co. of Amer., 48 NY2d 906, 908). In particular, nothing has been shown, either via records of the Insurance Department or records of other litigation involving the same carrier or by any other means, to demonstrate that the conduct complained of by the plaintiff occurred in more than this isolated instance.
Finally, we note that absent a valid claim for compensatory damages, there could be none for punitive damages even if the insurer’s refusal to pay the benefit due under the policy in the circumstances here could be said to be such a gross disregard of its contractual obligations as to constitute morally culpable conduct for which punitive damages might be claimed (see Sukup v State of New York, 19 NY2d 519, 522).
Chief Judge Cooke and Judges Jasen, Gabrielli, Jones, Wachtler, Fuchsberg and Meyer concur.
Order affirmed, without costs, in a memorandum.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.