Opinion
Submitted January 19, 2000
February 28, 2000
In an action to recover damages for, inter alia, personal injuries, the defendants appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Held, J.), dated February 25, 1998, which denied their motion to vacate an order of the same court, dated December 10, 1997, made upon their default in answering.
Bryan M. Rothenberg, Mineola, N.Y., for appellants.
LAWRENCE J. BRACKEN, J.P., DANIEL W. JOY, WILLIAM C. THOMPSON, GLORIA GOLDSTEIN, SANDRA J. FEUERSTEIN, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the order is reversed, on the law, with costs, the motion is granted, and the order dated December 10, 1997, is vacated.
A court may excuse a default in answering upon a showing of a meritorious defense and a justifiable excuse for the default (see,CPLR 5015[a][1]; Fox v. Bicanic, 163 A.D.2d 272 ). The affidavit of the defendant Choon-Ket Kong established a meritorious defense to the action. In addition, we are satisfied that the defendants provided a justifiable excuse for their default (see, Fox v. Bicanic, supra; Murphy v. D.V. Waste Control Corp., 124 A.D.2d 573 ).