Opinion

Ultramar Energy Ltd. v. Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A.

  • 191 A.D.2d 86
  • 599 N.Y.S.2d 816
  • 1993 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6845
Court
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
Filed
Jul 1, 1993
Status
Published
Author
Asch
On the bench
Asch, Sullivan
Cited by
45 cases
Authority
More cited than 2.2%

"Under New York law ... a creditor, secured or unsecured, [is] entitled to demand and received payment of its debt.... That such payment deprives die obligor of funds to satisfy other creditors does not convert the creditor who is paid into a guarantor for other creditors who are not paid.”

How later courts described this case

  • "Under New York law ... a creditor, secured or unsecured, [is] entitled to demand and received payment of its debt.... That such payment deprives die obligor of funds to satisfy other creditors does not convert the creditor who is paid into a guarantor for other creditors who are not paid.”
  • “Even though insolvent, a debtor may properly assign assets to a creditor as security for an antecedent debt although the effect of the transfer will be to prefer that creditor.”

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

Asch, J.

(dissenting). Defendant, Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., previously moved, pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (1) and (7), to dismiss the amended complaint herein. The prior order of the Supreme Court, which granted that motion by dismissing *92 plaintiff’s two causes of action against the bank for unjust enrichment and tortious interference with contract, was modified by this Court to reinstate plaintiff’s cause of action for unjust enrichment ( 179 AD2d 592 ).

Instead of answering, defendant Chase made this second motion pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (1) and (7) for dismissal.

However, CPLR 3211 (e) provides in pertinent part that ”[a]t any time before service of the responsive pleading is required, a party may move on one or more of the grounds set forth in subdivision (a), and no more than one such motion shall be permitted” (emphasis added).

As Professor Siegel notes, the requirement for a single CPLR 3211 motion before answer "has both procedural and administrative missions. It is designed to protect the pleader from being harassed by repeated CPLR 3211 (a) motions and to spare the court’s motion calendars the burden of a CPLR 3211 motion more than once in the same case.” (Siegel, Practice Commentaries, McKinney’s Cons Laws of NY, Book 7B, CPLR C3211:55, at 75-76.)

Therefore, the order of the Supreme Court denying the motion of defendant Chase to dismiss the third cause of action of the amended complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (1) and (7), should be affirmed since the motion is forbidden by the express language of CPLR 3211 (e).

Defendant is not foreclosed from raising its contentions in another form (see, McLearn v Cowen & Co., 60 NY2d 686, 689 ).

Kupferman and Ross, JJ., concur with Sullivan, J. P.; Asch and Kassal, JJ., dissent in a separate opinion by Asch, J.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County, entered April 7, 1992, reversed, on the law, with costs and disbursements, and the motion granted.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

A word about cookies

We need a few to keep you signed in and the library working. The rest help us see which pages people use and where they get stuck. They stay off unless you say yes.