Opinion
February 21, 1991
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Bronx County (Bertram Katz, J.).
In 1985, defendants moved for a change of venue to Westchester County, in this action and in a companion case entitled McGuire v General Elec. Co. Although the IAS court denied defendants relief in both actions, they successfully appealed the McGuire action to this Court, which, determined that the motion to transfer venue to Westchester County should have been granted. ( 117 A.D.2d 523.) Subsequently, defendants moved to renew their motion for a change of venue in the York action, and a favorable decision with a direction that the order be settled was entered on July 8, 1986. Defendants, however, did not "discover" the decision until April 1988 when they again moved for a change of venue. Upon withdrawing that motion, defendants waited until April 1990 before submitting a proposed order to the IAS court, which the court denied and deemed as abandoned pursuant to section 202.48 of the Uniform Rules for Trial Courts ( 22 NYCRR 202.48), which provides in part that failure to submit an order within 60 days shall constitute an abandonment of a motion unless good cause for the delay is shown.
By virtue of this court rule, it was incumbent upon defendants' attorney to submit a proposed order within 60 days. Counsel's explanation that the delay here, in excess of 3 years, was due to misinformation received from "unnamed" court personnel in 1986, coupled with counsel's unexplained failure to see publication of the notice to settle the order in 1986, does not constitute good cause sufficient to excuse the delay. (See, Stanley v City of New York, 157 A.D.2d 466, lv dismissed 75 N.Y.2d 947.)
Concur — Murphy, P.J., Rosenberger, Wallach, Kupferman and Smith, JJ.