Golden Eagle Capital Corp. v. Paramount Management Corp.

143 A.D.3d 670, 38 N.Y.S.3d 438, 38 N.Y.S.3d 439

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: October 5, 2016
• Docket: 2015-11290
• Status: Published

Opinion

In an action to foreclose a mortgage, the plaintiff appeals, as limited by its brief, from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (McDonald, J.), entered July 7, 2015, as granted that branch of the motion of the defendant JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., which was pursuant to CPLR 3215 (c) to dismiss the complaint insofar as asserted against it as abandoned.

Ordered that the order is reversed insofar as appealed from, on the facts and in the exercise of discretion, with costs, and that branch of the motion of the defendant JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., which was pursuant to CPLR 3215 (c) to dismiss the complaint insofar as asserted against it as abandoned is denied.

The Supreme Court improvidently exercised its discretion in granting that branch of the motion of the defendant JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., which was pursuant to CPLR 3215 (c) to dismiss the complaint insofar as asserted against it as abandoned. Although the plaintiff failed to seek leave to enter a default judgment within one year after that defendant’s default in answering, it demonstrated a reasonable excuse and the existence of potentially meritorious causes of action (see CPLR 3215 [c]; Maspeth Fed. Sav. & Loan Assn. v Brooklyn Heritage, LLC, 138 AD3d 793 [2016]; Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. v Brown, 19 AD3d 638 [2005]; Greenpoint Bank v Ginyard, 253 AD2d 451 [1998]; Umlic-One, Inc. v Cahill Trust, 236 AD2d 390 [1997]; cf. Baldwin v St. Clare’s Hosp., 63 AD2d 761, 761 [1978]).

Dillon, J.P., Cohen, Miller and Brathwaite Nelson, JJ., concur.