Santiago v. Valentin

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Mark Friedlander, J.), entered September 10, 2013, which denied plaintiffs motion to vacate an order entered against him on default, unanimously reversed, on the law, the facts and in the exercise of discretion, without costs, the motion to vacate granted, and the matter remanded for further proceedings.

In light of the strong public policy in favor of deciding cases on their merits, we find that the motion court improvidently exercised its discretion in denying plaintiffs motion to vacate the default order, since plaintiff established that he had a…