Hilary A. Best, appellant pro se. Auto Sound Security & Accessories, respondent pro se (no brief filed).

Appeal from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Queens County (Maurice E. Muir, J.), dated March 14, 2019. The order denied plaintiff's motion to vacate an order of that court (Tracy A. Catapano-Fox, J.) dated February 20, 2019 granting, upon plaintiff's default, defendant's motion to vacate a judgment entered January 8, 2019 upon defendant's failure to appear in the action.

ORDERED that the appeal is dismissed.

In this small claims action, defendant failed to appear in the action and a judgment was entered on January 8, 2019 after an inquest. Defendant moved to vacate the default judgment. Plaintiff failed to oppose that motion, which was granted by order of the Civil Court (Tracy A. Catapano-Fox, J.) dated February 20, 2019. Plaintiff subsequently moved to vacate the February 20, 2019 order and reinstate the default judgment, which motion was denied by order of the Civil Court (Maurice E. Muir, J.) dated March 14, 2019.

Since the effect of the order at issue is to require the parties to proceed to trial, it "does not, at this juncture, constitute a denial of substantial justice, which is the sole ground for an appeal in a small claims action" (Grossfield v Gabriel Mgt. Corp., 5 Misc 3d 128[A], 2004 NY Slip Op 51247[U], *1 [App Term, 2d Dept, 2d & 11th Jud Dists 2004]; see CCA 1807; Shaw v Okenwa, 36 Misc 3d 154[A], 2012 NY Slip Op 51720[U] [App Term, 2d Dept, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2012]; Mi Kim v Sobelman, 34 Misc 3d 146[A], 2012 NY Slip Op 50162[U] [App Term, 2d Dept, 9th & 10th Jud Dists 2012]; Santos v Ortiz, 3 Misc 3d 137[A], 2004 NY Slip Op 50513[U] [App Term, 2d & 11th Jud Dists 2004]). Consequently, the order is not appealable.

Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed.

ALIOTTA, P.J., WESTON and TOUSSAINT, JJ., concur.

Decision Date: November 27, 2020