Panasia Estates, Inc. v. Hudson Insurance Company

In Panasia Estates, Inc. v. Hudson Insurance Company (10 NY3d 200, 886 N.E.2d 135, 856 N.Y.S.2d 513 [2008]), in deciding whether an insured may seek consequential damages arising from the insurer's delays in investigation and determination of a claim, the court said that "consequential damages resulting from a breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing may be asserted in an insurance contract context ...." Id. at 203. Defendant only argued against inclusion of consequential damages because it asserted that plaintiff could not support the claim. The Court found that even though not specifically provided for in the contract terms, a claim for consequential damages, for losses caused by a delay in investigating a claim, should not have been dismissed by the lower courts where "the damages were within the contemplation of the parties as the probably result of a breach at the time of or prior to contracting'", quoting Kenford Co. v. County of Erie, 73 NY2d 312, 537 NE2d 176, 540 N.Y.S.2d 1 (1989).