I Settled With Their Insurer and Now They Are Suing Me in New York

Attorney Answer

Taking a payment from the other driver's insurer settled your claim against him. It did not release his claim against you, and being sued now is the ordinary consequence of that — not a sign that something went wrong. A release runs in the direction it is written. What you signed gave up the claims it named, and the insurer that paid you was buying peace on its own insured's liability to you. Nothing in that document speaks for what the other person may recover from you.

The first move is not to answer the lawsuit. It is to put your own liability insurer in charge of it. A liability policy is the thing that pays for a defense and for any judgment within its limits, and it obliges you to give notice of a claim and to cooperate. Insurance Law § 3420 sets out the provisions a liability policy issued or delivered in New York must contain, and it also requires an insurer that disclaims liability or denies coverage for death or bodily injury arising out of a motor-vehicle accident or any other accident occurring in this state to give written notice of that disclaimer, as soon as is reasonably possible, to the insured and to the injured person or other claimant. If your insurer intends to deny you a defense, § 3420 is why it has to say so in writing rather than simply go quiet.

Your message does not say whether you are being sued over an injury or over damage to the car, and that decides which New York rules apply. A personal injury action arising from the use or operation of a motor vehicle carries an additional layer under article 51 of the Insurance Law, and a comparative-fault rule whose content depends on when the action was commenced. This page states neither, because the record does not fix which case this is; an attorney reading the complaint will know at once.

What you can rely on is the calendar the plaintiff is working from. Under CPLR 214(5) an action to recover damages for a personal injury must be commenced within three years, and under CPLR 214(4) an action for an injury to property within the same three years. Some claims run much shorter — CPLR 215 sets one year for assault and battery, among others. The papers you were served with will themselves state what response is required of you and by when, and that is a date to hand to a lawyer today rather than to work out yourself.

What you can do

1. Send the summons and complaint to your liability insurer immediately, in writing, and keep proof of the date you sent them.

2. Send the same papers to a New York attorney. Do not draft a response yourself.

3. Gather what you already have: the release you signed, the settlement check or letter, photographs, the police report, and any correspondence with either insurer.

4. Ask your insurer in writing to confirm whether it will defend and indemnify you, and get its position in writing.

5. Do not discuss the accident with the other side's adjuster or attorney.

6. Do not ignore the papers — a deadline stated on them runs whether or not an insurer has answered you.

⏱ Time limits apply. The claim against you runs on the three-year period in CPLR 214(5) for personal injury or CPLR 214(4) for damage to property, keyed to the date of the accident, with shorter periods for certain claims under CPLR 215. Separately, the papers served on you carry their own response deadline. Which periods apply to your case, and what happens if one is missed, depends on facts this page cannot see — get the papers in front of a New York attorney and your insurer now.