Opinion
No. 3776.
March 1, 2011.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Joan B. Lobis, J.), entered May 5, 2010, which granted plaintiffs' motion to vacate an order precluding their expert witness from testifying at trial and denied defendants' motion to dismiss the case, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman Dicker LLP, New York (Richard Ng of counsel), for appellants.
Arnold E. DiJoseph, P.C., New York (Arnold E. DiJoseph, III of counsel), for respondents.
Before: Sweeny, J.P., Catterson, Moskowitz, Renwick and Richter, JJ.
Plaintiffs' counsel's debilitating illness, coupled with "law office failure," was a reasonable excuse warranting relief from the preclusion order entered on default ( see Frenchy's Bar Grill v United Int'l. Ins. Co., 251 AD2d 177, 177-178). Plaintiffs' expert witness disclosure sufficiently delineated defendants' alleged departures from accepted medical practice and their causal connection to plaintiffs' injuries ( Ford v Empire Med. Group, 123 AD2d 820, 821-822; see also Levy v New York City Hous. Auth., 287 AD2d 281). Moreover, there is no evidence that the failure to timely disclose was willful, contumacious or manifested bad faith ( Tsai v Hernandez, 284 AD2d 116, 117).