| Commissioners of the State Ins. Fund v Ramos |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 04361 [63 AD3d 453] |
| June 4, 2009 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| Commissioners of the State Insurance Fund,Respondent, v Manuel Ramos et al., Appellants, et al.,Defendant. |
—[*1] Jan Ira Gellis, P.C., New York (Kenneth J. Katz of counsel), for respondent.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Milton A. Tingling, J.), entered January 22, 2008,which, in an action to collect a judgment against, among others, defendants-appellants(defendants) on the theory that they are the judgment debtor's alter egos, insofar as appealedfrom as limited by the briefs, granted plaintiff's motion to dismiss defendants' affirmativedefense of laches, and, order, same court and Justice, entered July 7, 2008, which, insofar asappealed from and appealable, denied defendants' motion to renew, unanimously affirmed, withcosts.
Insofar as pertinent, defendants' answer contains an affirmative defense alleging, in itsentirety, that "[p]laintiff's claims are barred by the equitable doctrine of laches." In opposition toplaintiff's motion to dismiss this defense, defendants' attorney submitted an affirmation arguingthat the alleged laches is "self-explanatory" in that this action seeks to collect a 2004 judgmententered in a 1997 action against the judgment debtor to recover unpaid 1992/1993 workers'compensation premiums. The motion court, in the first order on appeal, correctly dismissed thedefense as pleading only a bare legal conclusion without supporting facts (CPLR 3013; seeRobbins v Growney, 229 AD2d 356, 357-358 [1996]). Concerning the second order onappeal, defendants have appealed only from that portion of the order as denied that branch oftheir motion as sought to reargue or renew plaintiff's motion to dismiss the laches defense. Thus,whether the motion court properly denied the branch of the motion as sought leave to amend theanswer to assert the facts supporting the defense of laches is not properly before this Court(see City of Mount Vernon v Mount Vernon Hous. Auth., 235 AD2d 516, 517 [1997]).In any event, for the reasons stated, the defense of laches is unavailable. We would add that theaffirmation of [*2]defendants' attorney submitted in support ofthe motion to amend the answer lacks probative value with respect to the prejudice allegedlycaused defendants by plaintiff's delay of prosecution against the judgment debtor (seeZuckerman v City of New York, 49 NY2d 557, 562-563 [1980]). Concur—Andrias,J.P., Buckley, Moskowitz, DeGrasse and Richter, JJ.