Opinion
2010-2207 K C.
Decided August 4, 2011.
Appeal from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Kings County (Anthony J. Fiorella, Jr., J.), dated August 24, 2010. The order, insofar as appealed from, granted a motion by tenant Yecheskel Weingarten to vacate a default final judgment only to the extent of staying execution of the warrant until September 2, 2010 for payment of arrears of $6,345.12, and otherwise denied the motion.
ORDERED that the order, insofar as appealed from, is affirmed, without costs.
PRESENT: PESCE, P.J., WESTON and STEINHARDT, JJ.
In order to vacate a default final judgment on the ground of excusable default, a tenant is required to establish both a reasonable excuse for his default and a meritorious defense to the proceeding ( see CPLR 5015 [a] [1]; Eugene Di Lorenzo, Inc. v A.C. Dutton Lbr. Co., 67 NY2d 138, 141; Mora v Scarpitta , 52 AD3d 663 ; 5576 Realty, LLC v Bourdeau , 20 Misc 3d 139[A], 2008 NY Slip Op 51571[U] [App Term, 2d 11th Jud Dists 2008]).In this case, appellant did not establish a reasonable excuse for his original nonappearance. Although appellant alleged that he had "tried to work it out with landlord himself," he never asserted that landlord had agreed to discontinue the nonpayment proceeding or to extend the time to answer. Moreover, appellant failed to demonstrate a potentially meritorious defense because he merely set forth generalized and conclusory allegations to the effect that landlord had refused to make necessary repairs to the subject apartment and failed to specify why landlord's calculation of the amount of rent arrears was incorrect ( see Peacock v Kalikow, 239 AD2d 188, 190; Schiavetta v McKeon, 190 AD2d 724). Accordingly, we find that the Civil Court did not improvidently exercise its discretion in refusing to vacate the default final judgment.
Pesce, P.J., Weston and Steinhardt, JJ., concur.