Opinion
10-05-2016
Einig & Bush, LLP, New York, N.Y. (Michael R. Bush and Dan M. Rice of counsel), for appellant. Thomas G. Sherwood, LLC, Garden City, N.Y. (Rebecca J. Waldren of counsel), for respondents.
Einig & Bush, LLP, New York, N.Y. (Michael R. Bush and Dan M. Rice of counsel), for appellant.
Thomas G. Sherwood, LLC, Garden City, N.Y. (Rebecca J. Waldren of counsel), for respondents.
In an action to foreclose a mortgage, the plaintiff appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Lebowitz, J.), entered May 27, 2014, which granted that branch of the motion of the defendants Young Hoon Kang and Eun Ja Choi Kang which was pursuant to CPLR 3215(c) to dismiss the complaint insofar as asserted against them as abandoned.
ORDERED that the order is reversed, on the facts and in the exercise of discretion, with costs, and that branch of the motion of the defendants Young Hoon Kang and Eun Ja Choi Kang which was pursuant to CPLR 3215(c) to dismiss the complaint insofar as asserted against them as abandoned is denied.
The Supreme Court improvidently exercised its discretion in granting that branch of the motion of the defendants Young Hoon Kang and Eun Ja Choi Kang which was pursuant to CPLR 3215(c) to dismiss the complaint insofar as asserted against them as abandoned. Although the plaintiff failed to seek leave to enter a default judgment within one year after the default by those defendants, it demonstrated a reasonable excuse for the delay and the existence of a potentially meritorious cause of action (see CPLR 3215[c] ; Maspeth Fed. Sav. & Loan Assn. v. Brooklyn Heritage, LLC, 138 A.D.3d 793, 28 N.Y.S.3d 325 ; Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. v. Brown, 19 A.D.3d 638, 797 N.Y.S.2d 295 ; Greenpoint Bank v. Ginyard, 253 A.D.2d 451, 675 N.Y.S.2d 314 ; Umlic–One, Inc. v. Cahill Trust, 236 A.D.2d 390, 654 N.Y.S.2d 574 ; cf. Baldwin v. St. Clare's Hosp., 63 A.D.2d 761, 761, 404 N.Y.S.2d 730 ).
DILLON, J.P., COHEN, MILLER and BRATHWAITE NELSON, JJ., concur.