152 N.Y.S. 35 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1915
A judgment having been taken herein by default, the defendant moved to set it aside and open his default on the ground that the summons and complaint had never been served upon him. The court appointed a referee to take testimony and report his conclusions. From the order confirming said report this appeal is taken.
The alleged service was made by a person who testified that he knew the defendant and that the circumstances of the service were as follows : “I says, ‘How are you Mr. Levinson,’' and he says, ‘All right,’ and I says, ‘I got a little paper for you.’ And he said, ‘I don’t want it,’ and he started to walk away * * *, and as he did so, I pushed it in his outside pocket, and I says, ‘is it all right?’ and he said, ‘It’s all right.’” The referee held that service, if made as described, was ineffectual because the nature of the papers was not disclosed to defendant nor was he in any way informed that serv
The defendant claimed that no service whatever had been made and attempted to prove an alibi, but I think the preponderance of proof shows that service was in fact made.
The order appealed from should be reversed and the judgment reinstated, with ten dollars costs and disbursements of this appeal, together with ten dollars costs on the motion below to vacate the judgment and such sums as the plaintiff was obliged to pay as part of the expenses of the reference, with leave to defendant to apply at Special Term to open his default and answer, on showing merits and on payment of all costs awarded by this order.
Clarke, Laughlin, Soott and Dowling, JJ., concurred.