Appeal from a default final judgment of the City Court of White Plains, Westchester County (Barbara A. Leak, J.), entered March 1, 2012. The default final judgment awarded landlord possession and costs in a holdover summary proceeding, thereby, in effect, amending a prior default final judgment entered November 14, 2011 which awarded landlord possession only. The appeal from the March 1, 2012 default final judgment brings up for review an order of the same court dated February 22, 2012, following a traverse hearing, which denied tenant's motion to vacate the default final judgment entered November 14, 2011.

ORDERED that the default final judgment entered March 1, 2012 is reversed, without costs, the order dated February 22, 2012 is vacated, tenant's motion to vacate the default final judgment entered November 14, 2011 is granted, and the matter is remitted to the City Court for all further proceedings.

Upon a review of the record in this holdover summary proceeding, we find that the City [*2]Court, in its order dated February 22, 2012, improvidently exercised its discretion in denying tenant's motion to vacate the November 14, 2011 default final judgment, which had been entered against tenant upon her failure to appear in the proceeding. Tenant demonstrated a reasonable excuse for the default and a potentially meritorious defense to the proceeding, as there are issues with respect to the propriety and service of the predicate notice (see CPLR 5015 [a] [1]; Eugene Di Lorenzo, Inc. v A.C. Dutton Lbr. Co., 67 NY2d 138, 141 [1986]; see also CPLR 317).

Accordingly, the default final judgment entered March 1, 2012 is reversed, the order dated February 22, 2012 is vacated, tenant's motion to vacate the default final judgment entered November 14, 2011 is granted, and the matter is remitted to the City Court for all further proceedings.

Nicolai, P.J., LaSalle and Tolbert, JJ., concur.
Decision Date: August 08, 2013