Appeal from a judgment of the District Court of Nassau County, Third District (Anna R. Anzalone, J.), entered February 1, 2006. The judgment, after a nonjury trial, dismissed plaintiff's cause of action and awarded defendants the principal sum of $3,800 on their counterclaim.

Judgment modified by reducing the award on the counterclaim to the principal sum of $2,025; as so modified, affirmed without costs.

In this commercial claims action seeking to recover $2,675 for painting the apartment of defendants, defendants interposed a counterclaim to recover the cost of repairing the defective paint job and for damage to a newly installed wooden floor in their apartment. Upon a review of the record, we find that although there was ample
evidence adduced to support the award of damages to defendants for plaintiff's defective paint job, the court erred in also awarding defendants damages for the repair of the wood floor. Defendants failed to produce two itemized estimates or an itemized paid bill or invoice for repair of the floor, and, thus, failed to meet their burden of proving their damages (see UDCA 1804-A). Accordingly, substantial justice requires that the judgment be modified by reducing the principal amount awarded to defendants to the sum of $2,025, the reasonable value of correcting the defective paint job (see UDCA 1807-A; Thompson v McCarthy, 289 AD2d 663 [2001]; Halsey v Connor, 287 AD2d 597 [2001]; Ferreira v Saccento, 286 AD2d 366 [2001]; Lyon v Belosky Constr., 247 AD2d 730 [1998]; Sherman v Hanu, 195 AD2d 810 [1993]).

McCabe, J.P., Tanenbaum and Scheinkman, JJ., concur.
Decision Date: April 16, 2008