JENKINS v. CISSE (2019)

ORDERED that the order is affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff, the former tenant of defendants, commenced this small claims action to recover the sum of $ 5,000 for the return of her security deposit and “rent refund for violations and not providing heat and hot water to tenant as required by law.” Upon defendants' failure to appear in the action, an inquest was held, following which the Civil Court entered a judgment in favor of plaintiff in the principal sum of $ 5,000. Defendants appeal from an order of the Civil Court denying their motion to vacate the default judgment.

A defendant seeking to vacate a default judgment based on an excusable default is required to demonstrate both that there was a reasonable excuse for the default and a meritorious defense to the action (see CPLR 5015 [a] [1]; Eugene Di Lorenzo, Inc. v. A.C. Dutton Lbr. Co., 67 NY2d 138, 141 [1986]; Codoner v. Bobby's Bus Co., Inc., 85 AD3d 843 [2011] ). While defendants' statements regarding their each having had “food poisoning” may provide a reasonable excuse for their default, defendants' conclusory statement that no money was owed did not set forth a potentially meritorious defense to the action (see Xaverian High Sch. v. Carmona, 58 Misc 3d 152[A], 2018 NY Slip Op 50117[U] [App Term, 2d Dept, 2d, 11th & 13th Jud Dists 2018] ).

We note that this court does not consider evidence which is dehors the record (see Chimarios v. Duhl, 152 AD2d 508 [1989] ).

Accordingly, the order is affirmed.

PESCE, P.J., WESTON and ELLIOT, JJ., concur.