21-MONTH-DELAY WAS LEFT UNEXPLAINED
After GUC failed to appear at a pretrial conference scheduled by the Queens County Supreme Court, his personal injury case was tossed by the presiding judge.
When he later sought to vacate his default, that motion was denied, and an appeal ensued.
On its review, the Appellate Division, Second Department, noted that to succeed on such a motion a party is required to demonstrate both a “reasonable excuse,” and a “potentially meritorious defense or cause of action.”
While he pointed to “law office failure,” that, in the AD2’s view, didn’t suffice, because GUC failed to explain why it took over 21 months to seek relief. And given that lapse, because the appellate court didn’t think GUC had met the governing “reasonable excuse” requirement, it opted to leave the underlying dismissal undisturbed.
Was the AD2 clearly dismissive of his claim?
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DECISION