Xiao Jia Lin v. Engleton

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Arlene E Bluth, J.), entered October 18, 2013, which granted defendant’s motion to vacate a prior order granting plaintiffs motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability upon defendant’s default, and, upon vacating the prior order, denied plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment, unanimously affirmed, without costs. Supreme Court exercised its discretion in a provident manner in determining that defendant provided a reasonable excuse for her default in opposing plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment (CPLR 5015 [a] [1]). The record shows that the failure of defendant’s counsel to oppose the motion was isolated and unintentional with no evidence of willful neglect (see Mejia v Ramos, 113 AD3d 429 [1st Dept 2014]; Cruz v Bronx Lebanon Hosp. Ctr., 73 AD3d 597 [1st Dept 2010]), and there is a strong public policy favoring disposition of cases on the merits (see Chelli v Kelly Group, P.C., 63 AD3d 632 [1st Dept 2009]). Furthermore, there is no dispute that defendant set forth a meritorious defense in this case, involving a traffic accident at a controlled intersection. Concur — Friedman, J.P., Moskowitz, Feinman, Gische and Kapnick, JJ.