{"id":133233,"date":"2025-03-14T15:56:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T15:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/insurance\/when-an-ambiguous-policy-provision-does-not-necessary-mean-a-loss-in-the-win-loss-columns\/"},"modified":"2025-03-14T15:56:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T15:56:48","slug":"when-an-ambiguous-policy-provision-does-not-necessary-mean-a-loss-in-the-win-loss-columns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=133233","title":{"rendered":"When an Ambiguous Policy Provision Does Not Necessary Mean a Loss in the Win\/Loss Columns"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

LIFE INSURANCE\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 POLICY INTERPRETATION\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 AMBIGUITY\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 GENERAL BUSINESS LAW \u00a7 349\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 PUNITIVE DAMAGES\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Hobish v. Axa Equitable Life Ins. Co.\u00a0<\/a><\/span>
(NY App. Div., 1st Dept., 05\/25\/2023)<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although this is a life insurance, rather than a property\/casualty insurance, case, there are several important #insurance coverage\/policy interpretation points at work in this decision:<\/p>\n

\n
    \n
  1. A policy provision is ambiguous when it is susceptible to two or more reasonable interpretations.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n


    <\/b><\/p>\n

  2. A New York court is not <\/u>required to resolve the ambiguity against the insurer when extrinsic evidence presented in the case is not conclusory as to the provision’s meaning.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n


    <\/b><\/p>\n

  3. Unless the extrinsic evidence supports only one party’s proposed interpretation, the ambiguity should not <\/u>be resolved by the court as a matter of law.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n

    The court also:<\/p>\n

    \n
      \n
    • AFFIRMED Supreme Court’s denial of summary judgment to the defendant dismissing plaintiff’s General Business Law \u00a7 349(h) cause of action, holding that “even if the decedent did not read the policy herself, issues of fact exist as to whether there was consumer impact in this case”;\u00a0<\/li>\n

      <\/p>\n

    • AFFIRMED Supreme Court’s grant of summary judgment to defendant dismissing plaintiffs’ claim for compensatory and consequential damages on the breach of contract cause of action, based on plaintiffs’ election not to terminate the contract and sue for a total breach, but instead maintain the policy with higher rates and then under protest exercise the surrender provisions of the policy;<\/li>\n
    • AFFIRMED Supreme Court’s\u00a0dismissal of plaintiffs’ claim for “restitutionary” damages pursuant to General Business Law \u00a7 349(h), holding that such damages were “too speculative to constitute actual damages under the statute”;\u00a0<\/li>\n
    • AFFIRMED\u00a0Supreme Court’s dismissal of plaintiffs’ claim for punitive damages of $12 million on its General Business Law \u00a7 349(h) cause of action based on its observation that GBL 349(h) provides for only “limited punitive damages” in the form of “an award of actual damages or fifty dollars, although a court may increase an award up to three times, up to one thousand dollars”.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      LIFE INSURANCE\u00a0\u2013 POLICY INTERPRETATION\u00a0\u2013 AMBIGUITY\u00a0\u2013 GENERAL BUSINESS LAW \u00a7 349\u00a0\u2013 PUNITIVE DAMAGES\u00a0 Hobish v. Axa Equitable Life Ins. Co.\u00a0(NY App. Div., 1st Dept., 05\/25\/2023)\u00a0 Although this is a life insurance, rather than a property\/casualty insurance, case, there are several important #insurance coverage\/policy interpretation points at work in this decision: A policy provision is ambiguous when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[57658,12696,8681,11572,21415,57659],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-133233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insurance","tag-ambiguous","tag-columns","tag-loss","tag-policy","tag-provision","tag-winloss"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen an Ambiguous Policy Provision Does Not Necessary Mean a Loss in the Win\/Loss Columns - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=133233\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When an Ambiguous Policy Provision Does Not Necessary Mean a Loss in the Win\/Loss Columns - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LIFE INSURANCE\u00a0\u2013 POLICY INTERPRETATION\u00a0\u2013 AMBIGUITY\u00a0\u2013 GENERAL BUSINESS LAW \u00a7 349\u00a0\u2013 PUNITIVE DAMAGES\u00a0 Hobish v. Axa Equitable Life Ins. Co.\u00a0(NY App. Div., 1st Dept., 05\/25\/2023)\u00a0 Although this is a life insurance, rather than a property\/casualty insurance, case, there are several important #insurance coverage\/policy interpretation points at work in this decision: A policy provision is ambiguous when […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=133233\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-14T15:56:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=133233#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=133233\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"When an Ambiguous Policy Provision Does Not Necessary Mean a Loss in the Win\/Loss Columns\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-14T15:56:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=133233\"},\"wordCount\":341,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Ambiguous\",\"Columns\",\"Loss\",\"Policy\",\"Provision\",\"WinLoss\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Insurance\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=133233#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=133233\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=133233\",\"name\":\"When an Ambiguous Policy Provision Does Not Necessary Mean a Loss in the Win\/Loss Columns - 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Axa Equitable Life Ins. 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