N.Y. Insurance Law § 3440: Insurance covering private passenger motor vehicles; rental vehicle coverage

§ 3440. Insurance covering private passenger motor vehicles; rental

vehicle coverage. (a) For the purposes of this section, a "private

passenger motor vehicle" is a motor vehicle: (1) of the private

passenger or station wagon type that is owned or hired by an individual

or by husband and wife under a long-term contract and is neither used as

a public or livery conveyance for passengers nor rented to others

without a driver; or

(2) with a pick-up body, a delivery sedan, panel truck or van, owned

by an individual or by husband and wife who are residents of the same

household or by a family farm co-partnership or a family farm

corporation, and not customarily used in the occupation, profession or

business of the insured other than farming or ranching, whether or not

used in the course of driving to or from work.

(b) Subject to subsection (d) of this section, every motor vehicle

liability insurance policy which insures less than five private

passenger motor vehicles registered in this state shall by endorsement,

provide coverage for the obligation of the insured for actual damage to,

or loss of, vehicles (including loss of use) rented by an insured in the

United States, its territories or possessions and Canada under a rental

agreement with a term of thirty continuous days or less, regardless of

where within those areas such rental vehicle is registered, rented, or

operated, subject to such maximum coverage limitations as the

superintendent may by regulation prescribe or any other applicable

limits in the policy, whichever is higher. The term "rental vehicle"

shall be used as defined in section one hundred thirty-seven-a of the

vehicle and traffic law, if a private passenger motor vehicle and not

used for the transportation of persons or property for hire.

(c) In no event shall payment be made by more than one insurer or

under more than one policy, and where a person is insured under more

than one policy, such coverage shall apply in the following order of

priority: (1) the policy or policies with respect to which the person is

a named insured; (2) if the person is not a named insured on any policy,

the policy with respect to which the person is an insured; (3) where two

or more policies provide coverage of equal priority, the insurer to

which the claim is first submitted.

(d) (1) Every policy to which this section applies shall, either upon

issuance or upon the first renewal after April first, nineteen hundred

eighty-nine, be accompanied or supplemented by a notice, in a form

prescribed or approved by the superintendent, advising the insured of

the rental vehicle coverage provided pursuant to this section.

(2) In the event that a separate charge based upon rental vehicle

coverage experience is included in the rate or policy premium, the

insurer shall thereafter advise each new insured and with the initial

renewal notice for policies thereafter renewed of the insured's

opportunity to reject such coverage within ten days following such

notice.

(e) Nothing in this section shall be construed to require an insurer

to make payment under the coverage herein for damage to, or loss of, a

rental vehicle (including loss of use) which the rental vehicle company

is precluded from recovering from the insured whether pursuant to the

terms of the rental agreement or due to the prohibitions of section

three hundred ninety-six-z of the general business law or similar

statutory provisions of other jurisdictions; or which is not otherwise

recoverable under the applicable insurance policy or policies.

(f) Nothing in this section shall preclude an insurer from pursuing

subrogation rights in connection with claims involving rental vehicle

coverage.