Appeal from a judgment of the Justice Court of the Village of Goshen, Orange County (Thomas Cione, J.), entered March 28, 2012. The judgment, after a nonjury trial, dismissed the action.

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff commenced this small claims action to recover the principal sum of $3,000, alleging that defendants made false representations in their advertisement to sell a vehicle, which vehicle plaintiff subsequently purchased. Following a nonjury trial, the Justice Court dismissed the action.

The standard of review on an appeal from a small claims judgment is whether substantial justice has been done between the parties "according to the rules and principles of substantive law" (UJCA 1807). A small claims judgment may not be reversed absent a showing that there is no support in the record for the trial court's conclusions, or that the trial court's determination is otherwise so clearly erroneous as to deny substantial justice (see Forte v Bielecki, 118 AD2d 620 [1986]).

Upon a review of the record, we find that the small claims judgment rendered substantial justice between the parties (see UJCA 1807). Defendants' advertisement did not rise to the level of a false representation, as the record establishes that the challenged portion of the advertisement was not false, but rather fell within industry standards.

We note that on appeals from small claims judgments, procedural errors generally do not constitute grounds for reversal if substantial justice has been accorded the litigants (see UJCA 1804, 1807; Blair v Five Points Shopping Plaza, 51 AD2d 167 [1976]). In any event, we do not find that plaintiff was denied the opportunity to fully argue his case or that he was not apprised of his rights or the procedures of the court.

Accordingly, the judgment is affirmed.

Nicolai, P.J., Iannacci and Tolbert, JJ., concur.
Decision Date: December 17, 2013