| Marine v Montefiore Health Sys., Inc. |
| 2015 NY Slip Op 04725 [129 AD3d 428] |
| June 4, 2015 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
[*1]
| Narvisa Marine, Appellant, v MontefioreHealth Systems, Inc., Doing Business as Marble Hill Family Practice, et al., Defendants,and Command Security Corporation, Respondent. |
Shayne, Dachs, Sauer & Dachs, LLP, Mineola (Jonathan A. Dachs of counsel),for appellant.
Gallo Vitucci Klar, LLP, New York (Cheryl I. Chan of counsel), for respondent.
Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Betty Owen Stinson, J.), entered on or aboutSeptember 8, 2014, which denied plaintiff's motion for a default judgment againstdefendant Command Security Corporation (Command), and granted Command's crossmotion to compel plaintiff to accept its answer, unanimously affirmed, withoutcosts.
The court properly denied plaintiff's motion for a default judgment and directedplaintiff to accept defendant Command's answer. Command offered a reasonable excusefor its delay in answering—confusion and inadvertence—which, althoughnot particularly compelling, is sufficient under the circumstances of this case. Moreover,the delay was relatively short, plaintiff suffered no prejudice, there is no evidence ofwillfulness and there is a strong public policy in favor of resolving cases on the merits(see Chevalier v 368 E. 148thSt. Assoc., LLC, 80 AD3d 411, 413 [1st Dept 2011]); Lamar v City of New York, 68AD3d 449 [1st Dept 2009]).
[*2] Giventhat no default judgment had been entered, defendant was not required to demonstrate ameritorious defense (see Lamar, 68 AD3d at 449; Nason v Fisher, 309AD2d 526 [1st Dept 2003]; CPLR 3012 [d]). Concur—Gonzalez, P.J., Mazzarelli,Acosta, Clark and Kapnick, JJ.