Opinion
Argued April 5, 2001
April 23, 2001.
In an action to recover damages for medical malpractice and wrongful death, the defendant Irwin Schlossberg appeals, as limited by his brief, from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Satterfield, J.), dated July 7, 2000, as granted the plaintiff's cross motion pursuant to CPLR 306-b for an extension of time in which to serve the summons and complaint.
McAloon Friedman, P.C.. New York, N.Y. (Timothy J. O'Shaughnessy of counsel), for appellant.
Bloomberg, Steinberg Bader (DiJoseph Portegello, P.C., New York, N Y [Arnold E. DiJoseph III] of counsel), for respondent.
Before: ALTMAN, J.P., KRAUSMAN, LUCIANO and COZIER, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.
Contrary to the appellant's contention, CPLR 306-b, which permits the Supreme Court to extend a plaintiff's time to serve a summons and complaint for "good cause shown or in the interest of justice", is applicable where service, timely made within the 120-day period, is subsequently found to have been defective (see, Murphy v Hoppenstein, 279 A.D.2d 410 [1st Dept., Jan. 25, 2001]; Gurevitch v. Goodman, 269 A.D.2d 355; Salamon v. Charney, 269 A.D.2d 256; see also, Alexander, 1997 Supplementary Practice Commentaries [McKinney's Cons Laws of NY, Book 7B, CPLR 306-b, 2001 Supp Pamph, at 188]). Under the circumstances of this case, the Supreme Court providently exercised its discretion in granting the plaintiff's cross motion for an extension of time to serve, in the interest of justice ( see, Leader v. Maroney, Ponzini Spencer, 276 A.D.2d 194; Scarabaggio v. Olympia York Estates, 278 A.D.2d 476).