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N.Y. LIE Law § 48

This is the official text of N.Y. LIE Law § 48, part of New York’s LIE Law — part of the compiled statutory law of New York, published by the state as "LIE Law." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Proceedings on return of summons; answer; judgment by default

Official statutory text

§ 48. Proceedings on return of summons; answer; judgment by default.\nAt the time and place specified in the summons for the return thereof,\nin a court not of record, issue must be joined, if both parties appear,\nby the defendant filing with the justice a verified answer, containing a\ngeneral denial of each allegation of the complaint, or a specific denial\nof one or more of the material allegations thereof; or any other matter\nconstituting a defense to the lien or to the claim upon which it is\nfounded. If the defendant fail to appear on the return-day, on proof by\naffidavit of the service of the summons and complaint, judgment may be\nrendered for the amount claimed, with costs.\n

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.