Shayne, Dachs, Sauer & Dachs, LLP, Mineola (Jonathan A. Dachs of counsel), for appellant.
Gallo Vitucci Klar, LLP, New York (Cheryl I. Chan of counsel), for respondent.
Opinion
Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Betty Owen Stinson, J.), entered on or about September 8, 2014, which denied plaintiff's motion for a default judgment against defendant Command Security Corporation (Command), and granted Command's cross motion to compel plaintiff to accept its answer, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The court properly denied plaintiff's motion for a default
judgment and directed plaintiff to accept defendant Command's answer. Command offered a reasonable excuse for its delay in answering—confusion
and inadvertence—which, although not particularly compelling, is sufficient under the circumstances of this case. Moreover, the delay was relatively short, plaintiff suffered no prejudice, there is no evidence of willfulness and there is a strong public policy in favor of resolving cases on the merits (see Chevalier v. 368 E. 148th St. Assoc., LLC, 80 A.D.3d 411, 413, 914 N.Y.S.2d 130 [1st Dept.2011] ); Lamar v. City of New York, 68 A.D.3d 449, 888 N.Y.S.2d 883 [1st Dept.2009] ).
Given that no default judgment had been entered, defendant was not required to demonstrate a meritorious defense (see Lamar, 68 A.D.3d at 449, 888 N.Y.S.2d 883 ; Nason v. Fisher, 309 A.D.2d 526, 765 N.Y.S.2d 32 [1st Dept.2003] ; CPLR 3012[d] ).
GONZALEZ, P.J., MAZZARELLI, ACOSTA, CLARK, KAPNICK, JJ., concur.