75 A.D.2d 765 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1980
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County, entered September 19, 1979, unanimously reversed, on the law and the facts, together with costs, the application granted and the proceeding remanded for a hearing on the merits. The issue is whether petitioner is barred from making an application to stay arbitration by virtue of the expiration of 20 days since service of the demand for arbitration (CPLR 7503, subd [c]). On February 16, 1979, respondent purported to comply with the statute by serving petitioner, by mail, with a set of 18 documents including a demand for uninsured motorist arbitration. The documents which primarily consisted of medical records and medical bills were forwarded under cover of a handwritten note, as follows: (copied from handwritten note) "Enclosed find bill and report of Coney Island Hospital, the bill and report of Jamaica Hospital is also enclosed, you have received the Police report. On Phillips’ Report, Demand is enclosed, Please pay him, Lost Wages have also been paid & understand [sic].” Although the demand for arbitration was on paper the same size as the other documents, it was folded over into quarters with the writing facing inward and stapled to the back of the eleventh document, in such a manner as not to indicate its contents or purpose. Although it may well be that petitioner could have discovered the nature of the document by a careful examination of the entire batch of documents, we have concluded that the service in such a manner was a nullity. The function of process is to give notice. Process must be served in a manner calculated to notify the opposing party of the relief sought and must give that party an opportunity to defend or oppose. Due process requires that the notice be served in such a manner as to apprise the interested party of the pendency of the proceed