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State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v Vasilehko
2011 NY Slip Op 50034(U) [30 Misc 3d 131(A)]
Decided on January 10, 2011
Appellate Term, Second Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.


Decided on January 10, 2011
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

APPELLATE TERM: 2nd, 11th and 13th JUDICIAL DISTRICTS

PRESENT: : GOLIA, J.P., PESCE and STEINHARDT, JJ
2009-2356 Q C.

State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. as Subrogee of JEFFREY WEBB, Appellant,

against

Yevgeniy Vasilehko, Respondent.


Appeal from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Queens County (Thomas D. Raffaele, J.), entered June 9, 2009. The order granted defendant's motion to vacate a default judgment.


ORDERED that the order is affirmed, without costs.

Upon a review of the record in this subrogation action to recover for property damage sustained by plaintiff's subrogor's vehicle as a result of the alleged negligent operation of defendant's vehicle, we find that the Civil Court did not improvidently exercise its discretion in granting defendant's motion to vacate the default judgment which had been entered against defendant upon his counsel's failure to timely answer the complaint. Defendant demonstrated a reasonable excuse for the default and a meritorious defense (see CPLR 5015 [a] [1]; Eugene DiLorenzo, Inc. v A.C. Dutton Lbr. Co., 67 NY2d 138, 141 [1986]). Accordingly, the order is affirmed.

Golia, J.P., Pesce and Steinhardt, JJ., concur.
Decision Date: January 10, 2011