Saber v City of New York

[*1] Saber v City of New York 2016 NY Slip Op 50304(U) Decided on March 16, 2016 Appellate Term, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.

Decided on March 16, 2016
SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, FIRST DEPARTMENT
PRESENT: Shulman, J.P., Hunter, Jr., Ling-Cohan, JJ.
571119/15

Nasser Saber, Plaintiff-Appellant,

against

City of New York, Defendant-Respondent.

Plaintiff appeals from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, New York County (Alexander M. Tisch, J.), dated September 4, 2015, which granted defendant's motion to vacate a default judgment.

Per Curiam.

Order (Alexander M. Tisch, J.), dated September 4, 2015, affirmed, with $10 costs.

We find no cause to disturb the motion court's discretionary determination to vacate the default judgment entered upon defendant's failure to appear at a court conference. The default was purportedly caused by law office failure (see Auerbach v Tregerman, 106 AD3d 633 [2013]) and defendant has demonstrated a potentially meritorious defense to the action (see Crooks v Lear Taxi Corp., 136 AD2d 452 [1988]). While there have been a number of defaults in this matter and the conduct of the Corporation Counsel was somewhat careless, the conduct was not willful or intentional, the defaults were not of long duration and there has been no showing of prejudice to plaintiff (see Matter of Baldini v New York City Empls. Retirement Sys., 254 AD2d 128 [1998]; Ulloa v City of New York, 193 AD2d 487 [1993]; Bank v Board of Trustees of Police Pension Fund, City of NY, Art. 1, 61 AD2d 954 [1978]).

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.

I concur I concur I concur
Decision Date: March 16, 2016