On October 20, 2021, the Second Department issued a decision in CitiMortgage, Inc. v. Nunez, 2021 NY Slip Op. 05689, denying a motion to vacate a default judgment because of, among other reasons, the defendant’s delay in making the motion, explaining:
A defendant seeking to vacate a default pursuant to CPLR 5015(a)(3) based on intrinsic fraud must establish a reasonable excuse for the default and a potentially meritorious defense to the action. Here, since the defendant failed to offer an excuse for her default in opposing the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment, the Supreme Court properly denied that branch of her motion which was pursuant to CPLR 5015(a)(3) to vacate the September 9, 2013 order and the order and judgment of foreclosure and sale, regardless of whether she presented a potentially meritorious defense to the action. Moreover, while there is no specific time limit within which a party must move to vacate a default pursuant to CPLR 5015(a)(3), the motion must be made within a reasonable time. The defendant’s motion to vacate her default was made more than four years after she failed to oppose the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment. Such delay was unreasonable.
(Internal quotations and citations omitted).