ISSUE WAS NEVER JOINED, THEREFORE THE ACTION COULD NOT BE DISMISSED FOR FAILURE TO PROSECUTE PURSUANT TO CPLR 3216 (SECOND DEPT).
The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the action should not have been dismissed pursuant to CPLR 3216 for failure to prosecute because issue was never joined:
CPLR 3216(b)(1) states that no dismissal should be made under this statute unless issue has been joined. ” A court may not dismiss an action based on neglect to prosecute unless the CPLR 3216 statutory preconditions to dismissal are met'” … . Here, none of the defendants submitted an answer to the complaint and, thus, issue was never joined (see CPLR 3216[b][1] …). Since at least one precondition set forth in CPLR 3216 was not met, the Supreme Court was without power to issue an order conditionally dismissing the action pursuant to that statute … . OneWest Bank, FSB v Singh, 2020 NY Slip Op 04957, Second Dept 9-16-20