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Turner v. Turner
Citations: 216 A.D.2d 910; 629 N.Y.S.2d 138Docket: Appeal No. 1
Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York; June 9, 1995; New York; State Appellate Court
Order affirmed unanimously without costs. Plaintiff filed a complaint against defendant Robert Turner, Sr. in August 1986 and an amended complaint in February 1987. Turner did not respond to either complaint, and the plaintiff waited until November 1993, nearly seven years later, to seek a default judgment. The Supreme Court dismissed the complaint against Turner as abandoned, per precedent that requires a plaintiff to seek judgment within one year after a default to avoid dismissal (CPLR 3215 [c]). The plaintiff failed to demonstrate that the delay was excusable or that the cause of action was meritorious. The plaintiff’s claim that a stipulation extending the time for Turner to answer justified the delay was rejected because such stipulation must be in writing, signed, or formalized as an order, which was not present in the record. Other reasons provided by the plaintiff for the delay were found to be conclusory and unsupported. As a result, the court did not consider other arguments from the plaintiff.