La Porte v. Bertolino

Subdivision (5) of the Special Readiness Rule of the Second Department, which provides that a party may move within 20 days after the filing of a statement of readiness to strike a cause from the calendar, does not mandate that upon such motion a cause must be stricken. The defendant’s attorney persistently argues that so long as a defendant has not completed any one of the preliminary proceedings the action is not ready for trial and must automatically be stricken on motion.

The argument is answered by the very words of the rule which provides in paragraph (a) of subdivision (3) that the…