Opinion
5697
December 20, 2001.
Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Howard Silver, J.), entered April 10, 2001, which granted a motion by non-party movant insurer for vacatur of a default judgment in the amount of $4,172,705.63, for restitution of $2,916,715.42 paid by the non-party movant pursuant to the default judgment and for leave to supplement the record, and order, same court and Justice, entered June 15, 2001, which, to the extent appealable, denied plaintiffs' motion for renewal of their opposition to the relief afforded defendants in the aforesaid April 10, 2001 order, and order, same court and Justice, entered June 26, 2001, which, in accordance with the aforesaid April 10, 2001 order, vacated the default judgment, with related relief, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
SOLEDAD RUBERT, for plaintiffs-appellants.
BURTON BROBERTS, for non-party respondent.
Before: Rosenberger, J.P., Tom, Andrias, Ellerin, Wallach, JJ.
A complaint not verified by a person with personal knowledge of the substantive facts is pure hearsay with no evidentiary value, and the entry of a judgment based on such a complaint must be deemed a nullity (see, Feffer v. Malpeso, 210 A.D.2d 60, 61). The court presented with the default judgment at issue here was entitled to have "some firsthand confirmation of the facts" (id.), and since it is now evident that plaintiff Mother's allegations lacked such a basis, they had no evidentiary value (see, St. Paul Fire Marine Ins. Co. v. A.L. Eastmond Sons, 244 A.D.2d 294). Accordingly, non-party movant insurer was entitled to vacatur without reference to excuse or a showing of merit (see, Wolf v. 3540 Rochambeau Assocs., 234 A.D.2d 6, 7). In the long-form order on appeal, all of the directives by the motion court are consistent with the prior decision and order upon which it is premised (see,Barretta v. Webb Corp., 181 A.D.2d 1018, appeal dismissed 80 N.Y.2d 892). We have considered plaintiffs' remaining arguments and find them unavailing.
Motion seeking leave to strike portions of reply brief and for other related relief denied.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.