Lamar v. City of New York

68 A.D.3d 449, 888 N.Y.2d 883

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: December 3, 2009
• Status: Published

Opinion

While the City’s generalized assertion of law office failure as the excuse for its delay is not particularly compelling, it constitutes “good cause” for the delay (see Spira v New York City Tr. Auth., 49 AD3d 478 [2008]). No prejudice to plaintiff has been shown (see Cirillo v Macy’s, Inc., 61 AD3d 538, 540 [2009]), and New York’s public policy strongly favors litigating matters on the merits (see Silverio v City of New York, 266 AD2d 129 [1999]). An affidavit of merit is not required where no default order or judgment has been entered (see Cirillo, supra). Concur — Saxe, J.P., Friedman, Acosta, Renwick and AbdusSalaam, JJ.