Opinion
March 21, 1994
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Queens County (Smith, J.).
Ordered that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.
We do not accept the plaintiffs' contention that the Supreme Court erred in denying their motion to amend certain allegations of the complaint and bill of particulars and increase the ad damnum clause of the complaint to include punitive damages. While it is firmly established that leave to amend a pleading shall be freely granted (see, CPLR 3025 [b]), a motion to amend is committed to the broad discretion of the trial court, and the resulting determination will not lightly be set aside (see, Citrin v. Royal Ins. Co., 172 A.D.2d 795; Napoli v. Canada Dry Bottling Co., 166 A.D.2d 696; Redco v. Town of Oyster Bay, 160 A.D.2d 984; Garza v. VICO Utils., 150 A.D.2d 520).
The proposed factual allegations would add new theories of liability as to the knowledge of the defendant General Motors Corporation of any prior complaints or notice of any defect nine years after the injury, eight years after the commencement of the action, and after the plaintiffs filed a note of issue and withdrew the case from the trial calendar on two occasions.
Additionally, the plaintiffs' motion was not supported by an affidavit showing the merit of the proposed amendments, nor by any affidavit showing a reasonable excuse for the extensive delay in seeking leave to amend the pleadings. General Motors Corporation would be prejudiced through the assertion of a new theory of liability, i.e., that it had prior notice of a defect, to which Canada Dry Bottling Co. of N.Y. had only conclusorily alluded in the motion (see, Marks v. Radmin, 163 A.D.2d 368; Napoli v. Canada Dry Bottling Co., supra; Hypertronics Inc. v. Digital Equip. Corp., 159 A.D.2d 607; Gallo v. Aiello, 139 A.D.2d 490; Alexander v. Seligman, 131 A.D.2d 528; Raies v Apple Annie's Rest., 115 A.D.2d 599).
The case of Masaki v. General Motors Corp. ( 71 Haw. 1, 780 P.2d 566), relied upon by the plaintiffs, is inapposite. Thompson, J.P., Santucci, Friedmann and Florio, JJ., concur.