KOLODZIEJSKI v. JEN MAR ELECTRIC SERVICE CORP (2024)

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Eric Schumacher, J.), entered on or about March 19, 2024, which, to the extent appealed from as limited by the briefs, denied defendants’ motion to renew their prior motion to vacate a default judgment, unanimously reversed, on the law and the facts, without costs, the motion to renew granted and the default judgment vacated.  Appeal from so much of aforesaid order as denied defendants’ motion to reargue, unanimously dismissed, without costs, as taken from a nonappealable paper.

On this record, under the circumstances presented, we find that the motion for renewal should have been granted and, upon renewal, the default judgment against defendants should have been vacated on the ground that defendants demonstrated a reasonable excuse for their default in failing to appear for a status conference (see Eugene Di Lorenzo, Inc. v. A.C. Dutton Lbr. Co., 67 N.Y.2d 138, 141, 501 N.Y.S.2d 8, 492 N.E.2d 116 [1986];  see also CPLR 2005).  The granting of a previous motion to vacate an earlier default established as law of the case that defendants have a meritorious defense (see Di Lorenzo, 67 N.Y.2d at 141, 501 N.Y.S.2d 8, 492 N.E.2d 116).

Defendants’ appeal from the portion of the order that denied leave to reargue their motion to vacate is dismissed because no appeal lies from an order denying reargument (see Brito v. Allstate Ins. Co., 135 A.D.3d 568, 569, 23 N.Y.S.3d 231 [1st Dept. 2016]).