CPLR § 5015

Relief from judgment or order

Rule 5015. Relief from judgment or order. (a) On motion. The court which rendered a judgment or order may relieve a party from it upon such terms as may be just, on motion of any interested person with such notice as the court may direct, upon the ground of:

1. excusable default, if such motion is made within one year after service of a copy of the judgment or order with written notice of its entry upon the moving party, or, if the moving party has entered the judgment or order, within one year after such entry; or

2. newly-discovered evidence which, if introduced at the trial, would probably have produced a different result and which could not have been discovered in time to move for a new trial under section 4404; or

3. fraud, misrepresentation, or other misconduct of an adverse party; or

4. lack of jurisdiction to render the judgment or order; or

5. reversal, modification or vacatur of a prior judgment or order upon which it is based.

(b) On stipulation. The clerk of the court may vacate a default judgment entered pursuant to section 3215 upon the filing with him of a stipulation of consent to such vacatur by the parties personally or by their attorneys.

(c) On application of an administrative judge. An administrative judge, upon a showing that default judgments were obtained by fraud, misrepresentation, illegality, unconscionability, lack of due service, violations of law, or other illegalities or where such default judgments were obtained in cases in which those defendants would be uniformly entitled to interpose a defense predicated upon but not limited to the foregoing defenses, and where such default judgments have been obtained in a number deemed sufficient by him to justify such action as set forth herein, and upon appropriate notice to counsel for the respective parties, or to the parties themselves, may bring a proceeding to relieve a party or parties from them upon such terms as may be just. The disposition of any proceeding so instituted shall be determined by a judge other than the administrative judge.

(d) Restitution. Where a judgment or order is set aside or vacated, the court may direct and enforce restitution in like manner and subject to the same conditions as where a judgment is reversed or modified on appeal.

Official sourcehttps://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CVP/5015

In plain English

The rendering court may relieve a party from a judgment/order on motion, on these grounds:

1. Excusable default — motion within 1 year of service of the judgment with notice of entry (or within 1 year of entry if the movant entered it). ★

2. Newly-discovered evidence that probably would have changed the result and couldn't have been found in time for a § 4404 new-trial motion.

3. Fraud, misrepresentation, or other misconduct of the adverse party.

4. Lack of jurisdiction to render it.

5. Reversal/modification/vacatur of a prior judgment it was based on.

(b) On stipulation: the clerk may vacate a § 3215 default judgment on a filed consent stipulation. ★ (c) an administrative judge may move to undo batches of fraudulently obtained default judgments (decided by a different judge). (d) Restitution: court may order payback when a judgment is set aside.

Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.

In print

This provision appears in Volume 2 — The JG-22 CPLR and in Volume 1 — The JG-22 in Plain English.