Appeal from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Kings County (Dolores L. Waltrous, J.), entered September 5, 2007. The order denied defendant's motion to vacate a default judgment.

Order affirmed without costs.

In this small claims action to recover $5,000 for damage to plaintiff's vehicle, defendant failed to appear and a default judgment was entered against her on August 15, 2007. Defendant subsequently moved to vacate the default judgment. The Civil Court denied the motion on the ground that defendant failed to demonstrate a reasonable excuse for the default and a meritorious defense to the action.

The determination of what constitutes a reasonable excuse for a default lies within the sound discretion of the motion court (see Matter of Gambardella v Ortov Light., 278 AD2d 494 [2000]). In our view, the Civil Court did not improvidently exercise its discretion in finding that defendant had no adequate excuse for her failure to appear. The record is devoid of any sworn allegations by defendant regarding her excuse for defaulting in this case. Defendant's excuse, raised for the first time on appeal, is not properly before this court. Moreover, we find that defendant did not demonstrate a meritorious defense to the action. Accordingly, the order denying defendant's motion to vacate the default judgment is affirmed.

Weston Patterson, J.P., Rios and Steinhardt, JJ., concur.
Decision Date: December 31, 2008