—In a proceeding pursuant to General Municipal Law § 50-e (5) for leave to serve a late notice of claim, the petitioner Samuel Morrison appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Price, J.), dated September 18, 1996, which denied the application.
Ordered that the order is affirmed, with costs.
“ ‘The key factors in determining whether leave to [serve] a late notice of claim should be granted are whether the [petitioner] has demonstrated a reasonable excuse for failing to serve a timely notice of claim, whether the municipality acquired actual knowledge of the essential facts constituting the claim within 90 days of its accrual (see, General Municipal Law § 50-e [1]) or a reasonable time thereafter, and whether the delay would substantially prejudice the municipality in maintaining its defense on the merits’ ” (Matter of Buddenhagen v Town of Brookhaven,
The appellant has failed to proffer a reasonable excuse for the almost one-year delay in seeking permission to serve a late notice of claim (see, Matter of Rudisel v City of New York,
Even if employees of the respondents were present at the accident site at the time of a petitioner’s accident, as was allegedly the case herein, such would not establish that the respondents acquired actual knowledge of the essential facts underlying the claim (cf., Calloway v City of N. Y. Hous. Auth.,
The respondents would suffer prejudice if they were forced to defend on the merits at this late date, especially since the conditions surrounding the accident were transitory in nature. Thus, the Supreme Court properly exercised its discretion by denying the application. Sullivan, J. P., Friedmann, Florio and McGinity, JJ., concur.