Opinion
570146/03.
Decided March 23, 2004.
Tenant appeals from an order of the Civil Court, New York County, dated November 20, 2002 (Peter M. Wendt, J.) denying his motion to vacate a stipulation of settlement, and from an order of the same court and judge, dated January 6, 2003, granting landlord a possessory and monetary judgment pursuant to the stipulation.
Orders dated November 20, 2002 and January 6, 2003 (Peter M. Wendt, J.) affirmed, with $10 costs.
PRESENT: HON. LUCINDO SUAREZ, P.J., HON. WILLIAM J. DAVIS, HON. MARTIN SCHOENFELD, Justices.
Civil Court properly denied tenant's motion to vacate the stipulation entered on the record in open court on November 8, 2002 (CPLR 2104). Tenant was present at the proceedings and was represented by experienced counsel. The oral stipulation was a "complete agreement, definite and certain and intended to be binding" (see, Matter of Dolgin Eldert Corp., 31 NY2d 1, 8), and there was no reservation of issues for future negotiation. The court file was marked "settled per stip to be filed by 11/13/02". Tenant's "subsequent recalcitrance" (see, Popovic v. New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., 180 AD2d 493) in refusing to execute a written stipulation affords no basis for vacatur of the subsisting settlement. "Stipulations of settlement are favored by the courts and not lightly cast aside [citation omitted]. This is all the more so in the case of 'open court' stipulations [citation omitted] within CPLR 2104 . . ." (Hallock v. State of New York, 64 NY2d 224, 230).
Tenant's present objections to the sufficiency of the predicate notice and petition do not implicate the court's subject matter jurisdiction and were effectively waived when tenant stipulated to the entry of judgment (see, 433 West Associates v. Murdock, 276 AD2d 360).
This constitutes the decision and order of the court.