Tanpinco v. Royal Caribbean International

79 A.D.3d 484, 911 N.Y.S.2d 625

Opinion

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Milton A. Tingling, J.), entered June 16, 2009, which, upon plaintiffs motion for a default judgment against defendants Corporate Travel Services and Corporate Travel Services, Inc., and said defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a cause of action, directed defendants to serve their answer within 20 days, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Defendants demonstrated a reasonable excuse for their delay in answering the complaint, i.e., that their insurance carrier failed to forward the complaint to counsel (see Heskel’s W. 38th St. Corp. v Gotham Constr. Co. LLC, 14 AD3d 306, 307 [2005]). The record shows no willful default on defendants’ part and no prejudice to plaintiffs as a result of the delay (see Pagan v Four Thirty Realty LLC, 50 AD3d 265 [2008]). Concur — Tom, J.P., Andrias, Sweeny, DeGrasse and Román, JJ.