Plaintiff appeals from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, New York County (Robert R. Reed, J.), entered August 1, 2013, which granted defendant's motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint.

Per Curiam.

Order (Robert R. Reed, J.), entered August 1, 2013, reversed, with $10 costs, motion denied and complaint reinstated.

The action, seeking recovery of assigned first-party no-fault benefits, is not ripe for summary dismissal. While the record reflects that defendant properly paid a portion of the submitted claims for acupuncture services pursuant to the workers' compensation fee schedule (see Akita Medical Acupuncture, P.C. v Clarendon Ins. Co., 41 Misc 3d 134[A], 2013 NY Slip Op 51860[U] {App Term, 1st Dept 2013]), triable issues remain with respect to the claims denied outright by defendant on the stated basis that the CPT codes billed under were "outside the scope of the provider's specialty." Even assuming, without deciding, that defendant's affiant, a claims examiner, may fairly be considered an expert qualified to render an opinion on such matters (but cf. Kingsbrook Jewish Med. Ctr. v Allstate Ins. Co., 61 AD3d 13, 21-22 [2009]), the conclusory assertions set forth in her moving affidavit were insufficient to eliminate all triable issues of fact concerning the provider's "specialty." Defendant's failure to meet that evidentiary burden mandates the denial of its motion, regardless of the sufficiency of the opposing papers (see Alvarez v Prospect Hosp., 68 NY2d 320, 324 [1986]).

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.
Decision Date: March 21, 2014