Appeal by plaintiffs from an order of the Civil Court, Kings County (R. Garson, J.), entered April 2, 2004, which granted defendant's motion to vacate a default judgment.

Order unanimously affirmed without costs.

Plaintiffs brought this action to recover first-party no-fault benefits for medical services allegedly rendered to their assignor and obtained a default judgment upon defendant's failure to serve an answer. A party seeking to vacate a default judgment must establish a reasonable excuse for the default, a meritorious defense to the underlying action and the absence of willfulness. Although we recognize that "[a]n insurance carrier's delay is insufficient to establish a reasonable excuse for a default" (Juseinoski v Board of Educ. of City of New York, 15 AD3d 353, 356 [2d Dept 2005]; but see Yayin Chu-Reimer v Metpath, Inc., 227 AD2d 860, 861 [3d Dept 1996]), on this record, we perceive no abuse of the court's inherent power to vacate its own judgment (see generally Woodson v Mendon Leasing Corp., 100 NY2d 62, 68 [2003]; Ladd v Stevenson, 112 NY 325, 332 [1889]), especially where a question of fact has been shown to exist as to whether the claim at the outset was fraudulent (see CPLR 5015 [a] [3]) and involves a non-covered incident (Central Gen. Hosp. v Chubb Group of Ins. Cos., 90 NY2d 195 [*2][1997]; see A.B. Med. Servs PLLC [Luc] v Citiwide Auto Leasing, No. 2004-810 K C and A.B. Med. Servs PLLC [Louidins] v Citiwide Auto Leasing, No. 2004-812 K C [decided herewith]).
Decision Date: May 23, 2005