Opinion
October 21, 1993
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Albany County (Cardona, J.).
Plaintiff brought this action against defendants Leslie V. Lowden, Jr. and Katherine E. Lowden (hereinafter collectively referred to as the Lowdens) to recover upon their written guarantee of indebtedness of defendant L.V. Lowden, Inc. Supreme Court granted plaintiff's motion for summary judgment, defendants appeal and we now reverse.
Initially, we agree with defendants that the affidavits of plaintiff's vice-president, Anthony Spensieri, Jr., failed to satisfy plaintiff's initial burden of coming forward with prima facie evidence of the outstanding balance of the indebtedness. As this Court recently held, absent supporting documentary evidence or an explanation as to how the total amount of debt was calculated, "the conclusory allegations of plaintiff's employees as to the total amount of outstanding debt arising out of plaintiff's extensions of credit * * * are insufficient to satisfy [its initial] burden" (Transamerica Commercial Fin. Corp. v. Matthews of Scotia, 178 A.D.2d 691, 694; see, Winegrad v New York Univ. Med. Ctr., 64 N.Y.2d 851, 853; Zuckerman v. City of New York, 49 N.Y.2d 557, 562). Further, we conclude that defendants raised a factual issue concerning the Lowdens' execution of the guarantees with their verified amended answer, wherein they "specifically [deny] the authenticity of the signatures on [the guarantees]" (see, CPLR 105 [t]; Bethlehem Steel Corp. v. Solow, 51 N.Y.2d 870, 872; National Sav. Bank v Hartmann, 179 A.D.2d 76, lv denied 79 N.Y.2d 759).
Mikoll, J.P., Yesawich Jr., Crew III and Mahoney, JJ., concur. Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, with costs, and motion denied.