Plaintiff's 2001 Judgment Gets Paid with Compound Interest Despite 14 Year Delay in Enforcement.

• Date: 15 April 2019
• Author: Rogak, Lawrence N.

The instant action arises out of an action filed in the Civil Court of the City of New York, Queens County, entitled B.Z. Chiropractic, P.C. a/a/o Tony Dance v. Allstate Insurance Company, Index No. 70935/00, which sought to recover first party No-Fault benefits for services rendered to defendant's insured by plaintiff. Plaintiff was granted summary judgment in that action and on November 15, 2001, the Clerk of the Court entered judgment in favor of the plaintiff in the amount of $8,847.49. Plaintiff did not attempt to enforce said judgment until 2015, at which time defendant moved for a protective order and modification of the judgment pursuant to CPLR 5240. At that time, the amount of the judgment had grown to $227,060.57 ($8,847.49 plus 2% per month interest, compounded from November 15, 2001 through August 11, 2015). In an Order, dated November 16, 2015, the Civil Court found that plaintiff unreasonably allowed the compound interest to accrue and stayed said interest for the period of November 1, 2005 through June 19, 2015, the date that defendant received the plaintiff's collections letter. Respondent issued checks in the amount of $22,999.70 in accordance with that decision and sought a satisfaction of judgment, moving by Order to Show Cause to compel same. Said motion was granted on July 7, 2016. Plaintiff appealed and on August 18, 2017, the Appellate Term, consolidated both appeals and reversed the lower court's decision, finding that...