This case gives a nice list of defaults that are just not excusable. The problem I have is that behavior that does not fall anywhere within this paradigm is often not excusable, frequently in the Second Department, which is more stringent on default vacaturs than the Fist Department.
Imovegreen, LLC v. Frantic, LLC, No. 1195N, 2016 WL 2904594, at *1 (N.Y. App. Div. May 19, 2016)
“Although “certain law office failures may constitute reasonable excuses” (Mutual Mar. Off., Inc. v. Joy Constr. Corp., 39 AD3d 417, 419 [1st Dept 2007] ), a claim of law office failure should be rejected if the conduct is part of a pattern of “persistent and willful inaction” (Youni Gems Corp. v. Bassco Creations Inc., 70 AD3d 454, 455, [1st Dept 2010] ), “dilatory behavior” (Perez v. New York City Hous. Auth., 47 AD3d 505, 506 [1st Dept 2008] ) or “willful default and neglect” (Santiago v. N.Y.C. Health & Hosps. Corp., 10 AD3d 393, 394 [2d Dept 2004] ). This is such a case. Defendants’ alleged law office failure is not excusable, as the record shows that defense counsel was fully aware of his obligations and intentionally and repeatedly failed to attend to them (Forum Ins. Co. v. Judd, 191 A.D.2d 230, 230 [1st Dept 1993]; CPLR 2005).”
