Applying to Vacate a New York MCA Default Judgment

There is no form that cancels a judgment

The question a West Virginia business asks on finding a New York default judgment against it is some version of: how do I get rid of this?

The answer is that you apply, on a ground, with evidence, to the court that entered it. There is no administrative reversal and no equivalent of the clerical process that produced the judgment in the first place. That asymmetry is worth absorbing early, because it sets a realistic view of the work.

What the rule provides

CPLR Rule 5015 provides that 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 stated grounds.

Three features of that sentence shape everything:

• "May relieve." A discretion, exercised on material.
• "On motion." A formal application, not correspondence.
• "Upon such terms as may be just." Relief can come with conditions attached.

The grounds are not interchangeable

The rule lists several grounds, and two are worth setting out.

Excusable default. The one most often used in this area. The motion must be 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, where the moving party entered it, within one year after entry.

Newly discovered evidence. Material which, if introduced at trial, would probably have produced a different result, and which could not have been discovered in time to move for a new trial.

Those are different applications. They need different facts, they are timed differently, and the second does not assume a default at all.

This page does not enumerate the remaining grounds, because they were not read for this draft. The point for a business deciding what to do is that the selection is itself a decision, taken after reading the record, and taking it wrongly can put an application out of time when another route would not have been.

What the application is built from

From the court file: the affidavit of service, the docket, the judgment, and any affidavit of service of notice of entry. Those establish what happened and when — including, importantly, whether the one-year clock on the excusable default ground ever started.

From your own records: why no appearance was made, in documents rather than recollection. An address that had changed, a person who had left, a registered agent that was never updated, correspondence showing you were dealing with someone else at the time.

And generally, the defense itself. Applications of this kind are usually framed with something about the merits of the case the defendant would run if restored — the reconciliation of the debits, the terms of the guaranty, the identity of the plaintiff. The page does not cite authority for that; it reflects how these applications are commonly put, and your counsel will know what the court expects.

How the judgment got there in the first place

Worth understanding because it bears on the explanation. CPLR § 320 requires an appearance within twenty days of service of the summons, with longer periods in defined circumstances including particular methods of service. Where that passes, CPLR § 3215 lets the plaintiff seek judgment, and for a sum certain the clerk may enter it on the requisite proof within one year of the default.

Two administrative steps produced the judgment. Undoing it takes a motion. That is the whole shape of the problem.

What to do first, from West Virginia

1. Get the complete court file, not just the judgment.
2. Establish whether notice of entry was served, and when.
3. Gather the documentary explanation for the missed appearance.
4. Assemble the defense you would run, because the application will probably need it.

A restrained account covers what the judgment is doing meanwhile, and how an MCA lawsuit is defended covers the case you would be returning to.