Appeal from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Queens County (Joseph E. Capella, J.), entered April 30, 2012. The order granted defendant's motion to vacate a default judgment.

ORDERED that the order is reversed, without costs, defendant's motion to vacate the default judgment is denied, and the default judgment is reinstated.

In this subrogation action, defendant appeals from an order of the Civil Court which denied his motion to vacate a default judgment that had been entered against him after he had failed to appear on the trial date.

A defendant seeking to vacate a default judgment must demonstrate a reasonable excuse for the default and a meritorious defense to the action (see CPLR 5015 [a] [1]; Eugene Di Lorenzo, Inc. v A.C. Dutton Lbr. Co., 67 NY2d 138, 141 [1986]). Even assuming that defendant's assertion, that he failed to appear in court on the trial date because he had received no notification of the trial date from the court, constituted a reasonable excuse for the default (see Birky v Katsilogiannis, 37 AD3d 631 [2007]; Vollaro v Bevilacqua, 33 AD3d 910 [2006]; Allstate Ins. Co. v Coachman, 29 Misc 3d 136[A], 2010 NY Slip Op 52017[U] [App Term, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2010]; State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. v MD Servs. of NY, Inc., 26 Misc 3d 136[A], 2010 NY Slip Op 50162[U] [App Term, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2010]), defendant did not demonstrate that he had a meritorious defense to the action, since he failed to make any showing that he was not responsible for the underlying motor vehicle accident (see State Farm Ins. Co. v Champion Furniture, Inc., 22 Misc 3d 134[A], 2009 NY Slip Op 50238[U] [App Term, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2009]). Consequently, it was an improvident exercise of discretion for the Civil Court to grant defendant's motion.

Accordingly, the order is reversed, defendant's motion to vacate the default judgment is denied, and the default judgment is reinstated.

Weston, J.P., Rios and Aliotta, JJ., concur. [*2]
Decision Date: August 21, 2013