Lamar v City of New York

Lamar v City of New York 2009 NY Slip Op 08974 [68 AD3d 449] December 3, 2009 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Michael E. Lamar, Appellant,
v
City of New York, Respondent, et al., Defendants.

—[*1] Richard M. Duignan, New York, for appellant.

Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel, New York (Victoria Scalzo of counsel), for respondent.

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Larry S. Schachner, J.), entered August 6, 2008, which denied plaintiff's motion for a default judgment against the City of New York and granted the City's cross motion for an order deeming its answer to be timely served nunc pro tunc, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

While the City's generalized assertion of law office failure as the excuse for its delay is not particularly compelling, it constitutes "good cause" for the delay (see Spira v New York City Tr. Auth., 49 AD3d 478 [2008]). No prejudice to plaintiff has been shown (see Cirillo v Macy's, Inc., 61 AD3d 538, 540 [2009]), and New York's public policy strongly favors litigating matters on the merits (see Silverio v City of New York, 266 AD2d 129 [1999]). An affidavit of merit is not required where no default order or judgment has been entered (see Cirillo, supra). Concur—Saxe, J.P., Friedman, Acosta, Renwick and Abdus-Salaam, JJ.