Opinion
15935 Index No. 150122/15 Case No. 2021–03528
05-12-2022
BATBROTHERS, LLC, Plaintiff–Respondent, v. Sergey Viktorovich PAUSHOK, Defendant–Appellant.
Wuersch & Gering, LLP, New York (Kevin Murphy of counsel), for appellant. Holland & Knight LLP, New York (Mitchell J. Geller of counsel), for respondent.
Wuersch & Gering, LLP, New York (Kevin Murphy of counsel), for appellant.
Holland & Knight LLP, New York (Mitchell J. Geller of counsel), for respondent.
Gische, J.P., Scarpulla, Mendez, Shulman, Higgitt, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Andrew Borrok, J.), entered July 14, 2021, which denied defendant's motion to vacate a judgment against him entered June 19, 2019, on the ground of fraud ( CPLR 5015[a][3] ), unanimously affirmed, with costs.
Defendant's motion to vacate the judgment was properly denied, as it rests on previously advanced arguments that the motion court and this Court rejected ( Pritsler v. Zamansky LLC, 2019 WL 6973813 [Sup. Ct., N.Y. County 2019], affd 198 A.D.3d 518, 152 N.Y.S.3d 793 [1st Dept. 2021] ; Matter of Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. v. Fiorilla, 178 A.D.3d 567, 114 N.Y.S.3d 345 [1st Dept. 2019] ). Moreover, some of those arguments address the merits of the judgment obtained against defendant in the Russian courts and recognized here pursuant to CPLR article 53, and are thus misplaced in the context of this article 53 proceeding, which is "limited to the ministerial function of recognizing the foreign country money judgment and converting it into a New York judgment" ( Batbrothers LLC v. Paushok, 172 A.D.3d 529, 530, 101 N.Y.S.3d 297 [1st Dept. 2019] [internal quotation marks omitted], lv denied 35 N.Y.3d 902, 2020 WL 2203181 [2020] ).