| Curry v New York City Tr. Auth. |
| 2006 NY Slip Op 05105 [30 AD3d 299] |
| June 22, 2006 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. |
| Cornell Curry, Appellant, v New York City Transit Authority, Sued Herein as New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority and its Police Department, Respondent. |
—[*1]Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Robert D. Lippmann, J.), entered January 24, 2006, which denied plaintiff's motion for a default judgment, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The Supreme Court properly denied plaintiff's motion for a default judgment because, inter alia, plaintiff did not show that defendant's relatively short delay in serving its answer prejudiced him. Moreover, the delay was, at least in part, attributable to the fact that the named defendant is nonexistent, thus creating uncertainty about the identity of the actual entity intended to be sued (CPLR 3012 [d]; see DeMarco v Wyndham Intl., 299 AD2d 209 [2002]; Higgins v Bellet Constr. Co., 287 AD2d 377 [2001]). Concur—Saxe, J.P., Marlow, Nardelli, Catterson and McGuire, JJ.