Ugweches v Ugweches

Ugweches v Ugweches 2010 NY Slip Op 08622 [78 AD3d 558] November 23, 2010 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Austen Ugweches, Appellant,
v
Tatjana Nehhozina Ugweches, Respondent.

—[*1] Austen Ugweches, appellant pro se. Sanctuary for Families, Center for Battered Women's Legal Services, New York (Kara M. Bellew of counsel), for respondent.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Laura E. Drager, J.), entered January 21, 2010, which denied plaintiff's motion to vacate or modify a judgment of divorce entered following his default, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

While a liberal approach toward vacating defaults in matrimonial proceedings is warranted because of the important public policy of determining those actions on their merits, "it is still incumbent upon a party seeking vacatur to establish both a reasonable excuse for the default and a meritorious defense" (Estate of Allen v Allen, 258 AD2d 423 [1999]; see also Gass v Gass, 42 AD3d 393, 396 [2007]). Plaintiff's explanation for his decision to flee the country after being convicted of a felony, which resulted in his defaulting in the instant action, is not reasonable. Nor did he present a meritorious defense to defendant's counterclaim for divorce, or evidence otherwise warranting modification of the judgment. Accordingly, his motion was properly denied. Concur—Gonzalez, P.J., Tom, Sweeny, Richter and Manzanet-Daniels, JJ.