ALBANY – The Assembly Judiciary Committee yesterday advanced an Office of Court Administration bill that would allow tort plaintiffs to recover against third-party defendants when the third-party plaintiff is insolvent.
Assemblywoman Helene E. Weinstein, D-Brooklyn, sponsored the bill at the request of Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman. The measure is necessary, according to Judge Lippman’s Advisory Committee on Civil Practice, to alleviate an “uncertain state of the law” resulting from “several divergent” Court of Appeals opinions. It would permit recovery against a third-party defendant, regardless of whether the third-party plaintiff has satisfied the underlying judgment.
