Appeal from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Queens County (Cheree A. Buggs, J.), entered March 12, 2012. The order denied plaintiff's motion to vacate an order entered June 24, 2011 granting defendant's unopposed motion to dismiss the complaint.

ORDERED that the order is affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff commenced this small claims action to recover $5,000 as damages for defendant's alleged construction of a fence on plaintiff's property without plaintiff's permission. Defendant subsequently moved to dismiss the complaint. By order entered June 24, 2011, the
Civil Court (Rudolph E. Greco, Jr., J.) granted defendant's unopposed motion. Plaintiff moved to vacate the June 24, 2011 order, which motion was denied by order of the Civil Court (Cheree A. Buggs, J.) entered March 12, 2012. This appeal by plaintiff ensued.

It is well settled that a plaintiff seeking to vacate a default pursuant to CPLR 5015 (a) (1) must demonstrate both a reasonable excuse for the default and the existence of a meritorious cause of action (see Eugene Di Lorenzo, Inc. v A.C. Dutton Lbr. Co., 67 NY2d 138, 141 [1986]; Mora v Scarpitta, 52 AD3d 663 [2008]). As plaintiff failed to demonstrate a reasonable excuse for his default, the Civil Court properly denied plaintiff's motion to vacate the June 24, 2011 [*2]order.

Accordingly, the order is affirmed.

Pesce, P.J., Weston and Rios, JJ., concur.
Decision Date: December 09, 2013