Opinion
April 7, 1998
Appeal from Supreme Court, New York County (Fern Fisher-Brandveen, J.).
After six years of litigation in which plaintiff shipper had proceeded on the theory of an assignment to it of a cargo carrier's rights under a steamship guarantee issued by defendant bank (see, 190 A.D.2d 635), and four months after trial, plaintiff sought to amend its complaint to assert tort causes of action against the bank based on the theory that the very issuance of the guarantee interfered with its contract of carriage with the carrier. Plaintiff offered no reasonable excuse for the delay in asserting this theory, and the prejudice to defendant of having been deprived of the opportunity to conduct discovery or present evidence relating to this new theory, including long-standing industry acceptance of these steamship guarantees as important facilitators of international trade and possible defenses based on plaintiff's assertedly delayed delivery of the bill of lading, fully justified the trial court's denial of plaintiff's motion to amend (see, Assante v. City of New York, 173 A.D.2d 430; Young v. Zwack, Inc., 98 A.D.2d 913).
Concur — Milonas, J.P., Nardelli, Mazzarelli and Saxe, JJ.