When insanity is more persuasive than reason

Atlantic Radiology Imaging, P.C. v Interboro Mut. Ins. Co., 2016 NY Slip Op 51031(U)(App. Term 2d Dept. 2016)

I admittedly find the extent that the judges and attorneys in the Civil Kings motion part 1) like to take defaults; and 2) refuse to vacate defaults to be alarming.  There is no other Civil Court or District Court that I have practiced in where the court and judges look for reasons to default litigants.

This case and every other case I end up having to bring to the Appellate Term to vacate defaults just proves that insanity trumps reason, and not the Trump that is looking to Make America Great Again.  Defendant moved for summary judgment and ancillary relief.  Court found triable issue of medical necessity.  Plaintiff moved for summary judgment after Defendant moved for summary judgment and received a later adjourn date.  Attorney comes to court on plaintiff’s motion and told judge the issue was resolved in prior motion and there was a calendar issue so “formal” opposition was not interposed.  Brief adjournment please?  Clearly, nobody acted willfully or neglected the file.  Plaintiff meant to make a cross-motion but made it returnable on another day.  In the real world, the motions would have been heard together.  In a surreal world, a one week adjournment would have been granted for a one line opposition with the order and motion papers  from motion sequence number to be attached as an exhibit

Court defaulted defendant instead of adjourning the matter, which was inappropriate because the law of the case was that a triable issue of fact medical necessity.  Again, do not expect anybody to go through a file and say that Plaintiff’s motion lacks merit.  Defendant immediately moved to vacate and the presiding judge on the vacatur application denied the motion.  No comment here.  Off to the Appellate Term which vacated the order.

This paradigm and variants of it represent normal behavior in the Civil Kings motion term.

A solution might be to assign cases to IAS parts, give shorter adjournments, allow 2-3 adjournments and allow greater judicial case management.  The Civil Kings motion term is broken on so many levels.

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7 Responses

  1. I think its a great system. there is too much forgiveness in the law. civil kings is tired of all that lawyer attitude.. adjourn. forgive. adjourn. forgive.

    they are building a wall with mexico that starts in brooklyn.

    and justice delayed is justice denied.

    the appellate term is too liberal and nice, although i am sure they are much more highly qualified than civil kings because they sit on such a high court.

    I heard canada is building a wall on their border with the united states.

    “I don’t need your war machines … i don’t dig your ghetto scenes”

  2. Considering that the Appellate Term will let an insurer correct a defect with 2309 or 2106, long after the motion was decided, this is just stupid.

  3. You can repeal the entire cplr. it will not affect the administration of “justice” in new york one bit.

    now i am not saying that the courts disregard the cplr but they do ignore it.

  4. Some semblance of reason SHOUld be used but the courts are way to lax on vacating defaults. It’s not so hard to follow schedules which are made for a reason. Law Office failure should only be allowed on Extreme circumstances not the other way around!

  5. Most law offices are failures.. Some rob their clients to succeed. Some contribute to the political machine to succeed.

    Did you see sandra peddie’s piece in newsday on sunday.

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