State-Wide Ins. Co. v. Curry

In State-Wide Ins. Co. v. Curry, 43 N.Y.2d 298, the Court of Appeals held that where insolvency renders a domestic insurer incapable of satisfying its insurance obligations to a tortfeasor, the tort victim is not entitled to receive uninsured motorist benefits from his or her own insurer. The basis for the State-Wide holding was that under the compulsory uninsured motorist scheme: (1) the offending vehicle whose domestic insurer became insolvent did not meet the "uninsured motor vehicle" definition in the then-applicable Insurance Law provision; and, (2) the Insurance Law established the Motor Vehicle Liability Security Fund to provide protection for accident victims where the domestic insurer was insolvent.