Sims v. New York City Housing Authority

127 A.D.3d 434, 4 N.Y.S.3d 514

Opinion

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Joan M. Kenney, J.), entered September 16, 2014, which denied defendant/third-party plaintiff, New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) motion to vacate an order, same court and Justice, entered July 2, 2014, inter alia, severing, sua sponte, the third-party and second-third-party actions, unanimously reversed, on the law, the facts and in the exercise of discretion, without costs, the motion granted, the July 2, 2014 order vacated, and the matter remanded for further proceedings, including a determination of the motion by Lend Lease (US) Construction LMB, Inc., formerly Bovis Lend Lease LMB, Inc., for an additional deposition of the plaintiff.

The court improvidently exercised its discretion by refusing to vacate the severance order, where the actions had a common nucleus of facts, no party had been seeking severance at the time, and no party had opposed NYCHA’s motion to vacate the sua sponte grant of severance. Nor had any party argued that they would be prejudiced by a joint trial of the main and third-party actions, or that such trial would result in substantial delay (see Shanley v Callanan Indus., 54 NY2d 52, 57 [1981]; Vecciarelli v King Pharms., Inc., 71 AD3d 595, 596 [1st Dept 2010]; Sichel v Community Synagogue, 256 AD2d 276 [1st Dept 1998]).

Concur — Friedman, J.P., Acosta, Moskowitz, Richter and Kapnick, JJ.