Amalgamated Bank v. Helmsley-Spear, Inc.

New York Court of Appeals

Amalgamated Bank v. Helmsley-Spear, Inc.

35 N.E.3d 480, 25 N.Y.3d 1098, 14 N.Y.S.3d 312

New York Court of Appeals·Decided June 25, 2015·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Memorandum.

The order of the Appellate Division, insofar as appealed from, should be affirmed, with costs.

[1100] The intervenors lacked standing to bring a motion to vacate the default judgment. “To seek relief from a judgment or order, all that is necessary is that some legitimate interest of the moving party will be served and that judicial assistance will avoid injustice” (Oppenheimer v Westcott, 47 NY2d 595, 602 [1979] [internal quotation marks and citation omitted]). Here, however, the intervenors did not meet the second prong of that test because they failed to identify any facts that give rise to a claim that injustice of any kind would be avoided by vacating the judgment (cf. Bond v Giebel, 101 AD3d 1340, 1342-1343 [3d Dept 2012], appeal dismissed, lv dismissed 21 NY3d 884 [2013]; Lane v Lane, 175 AD2d 103, 105-106 [2d Dept 1991]).

Chief Judge Lippman and Judges Read, Pigott, Rivera, Abdus-Salaam, Stein and Fahey concur.

Order, insofar as appealed from, affirmed, with costs, in a memorandum.

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OPINION OF THE COURT

Memorandum.

The order of the Appellate Division, insofar as appealed from, should be affirmed, with costs.

[1100] The intervenors lacked standing to bring a motion to vacate the default judgment. “To seek relief from a judgment or order, all that is necessary is that some legitimate interest of the moving party will be served and that judicial assistance will avoid injustice” (Oppenheimer v Westcott, 47 NY2d 595, 602 [1979] [internal quotation marks and citation omitted]). Here, however, the intervenors did not meet the second prong of that test because they failed to identify any facts that give rise to a claim that injustice of any kind would be avoided by vacating the judgment (cf. Bond v Giebel, 101 AD3d 1340, 1342-1343 [3d Dept 2012], appeal dismissed, lv dismissed 21 NY3d 884 [2013]; Lane v Lane, 175 AD2d 103, 105-106 [2d Dept 1991]).

Chief Judge Lippman and Judges Read, Pigott, Rivera, Abdus-Salaam, Stein and Fahey concur.

Order, insofar as appealed from, affirmed, with costs, in a memorandum.

Amalgamated Bank v. Helmsley-Spear, Inc., 35 N.E.3d 480, 25 N.Y.3d 1098, 14 N.Y.S.3d 312 (N.Y. 2015).

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Opinion

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