These questions can be litigated at the trial. It is not the policy of the courts to consider the merits of proposed pleadings on motions for leave to serve them. ( Doty v. Rensselaer County Mutual Fire Insurance Company, 188 App. Div. 29; Washington Life Insurance Company v. Scott, 119 id. 847; Milliken v. McGarrah, 164 id. 110; Muller v. City of Philadelphia, 113 id. 92.) The power to permit amendments is freely exercised unless the opposite party is prejudiced thereby. The order under review it is true does more than permit the service of a pleading.