Santos v. City of New York

Full title: MARGARET SANTOS, Appellant, v. CITY OF NEW YORK et al., Respondents

Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department

Date published: May 16, 1994

204 A.D.2d 525 (N.Y. App. Div. 1994)

614 N.Y.S.2d 198

Opinion

May 16, 1994

Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Jackson, J.).

Ordered that the order is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

We find that the court did not improvidently exercise its discretion in relieving the defendants from their default. The defendants' default in timely serving their answer is excusable on the ground of law office failure (see, CPLR 5015 [a] [1]; 2005; see, e.g., Price v. Polisner, 172 A.D.2d 422; Davies v Contel of N.Y., 155 A.D.2d 809). Moreover, the defendants submitted an affidavit from the assistant principal of the school where the accident occurred which suggests that they have a meritorious defense (see, Davies v. Contel of N.Y., supra). Thompson, J.P., Rosenblatt, Ritter, Friedmann and Krausman, JJ., concur.