Ten years after a playground incident in which a child allegedly fell from a slide and suffered head injuries and seizures first manifested a decade later, the child's mother made claim against the New York City housing authority administering the residential units where the family lived and the accident allegedly occurred. In the course of legal action, the housing authority's insurer appealed a trial court judgment holding that it was obligated in the circumstances to defend and indemnify the insured. The circumstances were as follows:

A police officer for the housing authority responded to a call by the child's grandmother, a tenant of the housing development, almost four months after the described incident. She said that the child complained of head pains and had been going into convulsions, presumably a consequence of the playground accident about which the girl's young brother provided details. The girl was hospitalized six days for treatment.

It was made clear from the evidence that claim was made on the housing authority in behalf of the injured child ten years after the alleged occurrence. The papers relative to the claim were forwarded to the insured ten days later, its first notice of the incident. The officer who responded to the call by the girl's grandmother said that the report that he made about the incident "was for internal use only, and that no copy had been sent in the course of business to the Authority's housing manager ordinarily responsible for delivering notice of liability exposure to (the insurer)."

The appeal court concluded that the ten year delay breached the insured's obligations under the policy and that, consequently, the insurer did not have an obligation to defend and indemnify its insured in the personal injury action.

The judgment of the trial court was reversed in favor of the insurance company and against the insured.

(WHITE ET AL., Plaintiffs v. THE CITY OF NY ET AL., Defendants; NY CITY HOUSING AUTHORITY, Third-Party Plaintiff, Respondent v. ALL CITY INS. CO., Third-Party Defendant, appellant; WHITE ET AL., Third- Party Defendants, Respondents. New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department. No. 45812. June 18, 1992. CCH 1992 Fire and CasualtyCases, Paragraph 3771.)