Buja v Shepard Niles, Inc.
2007 NY Slip Op 08640 [45 AD3d 1391]
November 9, 2007
Appellate Division, Fourth Department
As corrected through Wednesday, January 16, 2008


Kevin Buja, Respondent, v Shepard Niles, Inc., Appellant, et al.,Defendant.

[*1]Feldman, Kieffer & Herman, LLP, Buffalo (Adam C. Ferrandino of counsel), fordefendant-appellant.

Faraci Lange, LLP, Rochester (Carol A. McKenna of counsel), forplaintiff-respondent.

Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Monroe County (Thomas A. Stander, J.),entered October 5, 2006 in a personal injury action. The order denied the motion of defendantShepard Niles, Inc. to vacate a default judgment entered against it.

It is hereby ordered that the order so appealed from be and the same hereby is unanimouslyaffirmed without costs.

Memorandum: Shepard Niles, Inc. (defendant) appeals from an order denying its motion tovacate the default judgment entered against it in this personal injury action. Supreme Court didnot abuse its discretion in concluding that no reasonable excuse had been offered for defendant'sdefault in answering the complaint (see CB Richard Ellis v JLC Holdings, 306 AD2d 870[2003]; see also Johnson v McFadden Ford, 278 AD2d 907 [2000]; cf. Steinbarth vOtis El. Co., 244 AD2d 930 [1997]). Given the failure of defendant to demonstrate areasonable excuse for its default, we need not address whether it demonstrated a meritoriousdefense to the action (see Smolinski vSmolinski, 13 AD3d 1188, 1189 [2004]; Solorzano v Cucinelli Family, 1 AD3d 887, 887-888 [2003]).Present—Hurlbutt, J.P., Gorski, Martoche, Lunn and Peradotto, JJ.


NYPTI Decisions © 2026 is a project of New York Prosecutors Training Institute (NYPTI) made possible by leveraging the work we've done providing online research and tools to prosecutors.

NYPTI would like to thank New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, New York State Senate's Open Legislation Project, New York State Unified Court System, New York State Law Reporting Bureau and Free Law Project for their invaluable assistance making this project possible.

Install the free RECAP extensions to help contribute to this archive. See https://free.law/recap/ for more information.