Citibank (South Dakota) N.A. v Bissoon

[*1] Citibank (South Dakota) N.A. v Bissoon 2007 NY Slip Op 51265(U) [16 Misc 3d 127(A)] Decided on June 18, 2007 Appellate Term, Second 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 This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.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 June 18, 2007
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
APPELLATE TERM: 2nd and 11th JUDICIAL DISTRICTS
PRESENT: : GOLIA, J.P., RIOS and BELEN, JJ
2006-402 K C.

Citibank (South Dakota) N.A., Respondent,

against

Bernice Bissoon, Appellant.

Appeal from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Kings County (Arlene Bluth, J.), entered December 29, 2005. The order denied the branch of defendant's motion seeking to modify and/or vacate the parties' stipulation of settlement.

Order affirmed without costs.

In this action to recover for breach of a credit card agreement, the Civil Court properly denied defendant's motion to modify and/or vacate the "so-ordered" stipulation of settlement. Stipulations of settlement of disputes are judicially favored and not lightly cast aside (see Hallock v State of New York, 64 NY2d 224, 230 [1984]). A party may be relieved from the consequences of a stipulation of settlement made during litigation upon a showing of fraud, collusion, mistake, accident, undue influence or duress (id.). Inasmuch as defendant "failed to establish that at the time of the stipulation of settlement [s]he was suffering from a[n] . . . illness or defect which rendered h[er] incapable of comprehending the nature of the transaction or making a rational judgment concerning the transaction, or that . . . [s]he was unable to control h[er] conduct," she is bound by the agreement into which she entered (Lukaszuk v Lukaszuk, 304 AD2d 625, 625 [2003]; see Federation of Orgs., Inc. v Bauer, 6 Misc 3d 10 [App Term, 9th & 10th Jud Dists 2004]). Accordingly, the court below properly denied the motion to modify and/or vacate the stipulation of settlement.

Golia, J.P., Rios and Belen, JJ., concur. [*2]
Decision Date: June 18, 2007