Litigants suing under a note or guaranty want one thing—their money, and they want it quickly. CPLR 3213 provides the vehicle for such litigants to reach a speedy judgment. Pursuant to CPLR 3213 a party may commence an action by serving a motion for summary judgment in lieu of complaint “when the action is based upon an instrument for the payment of money.” Thus, CPLR 3213 provides plaintiffs with a way to skip discovery and immediately seek a judgment.

CPLR 3213 is a major tool that should be used more often by litigants and, in the eyes of these authors, embraced more by the courts. As the Court of Appeals explained in Cooperative Centrale Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank, B.A. v. Navarro, 25 N.Y.3d 485, 491 (2015), “CPLR 3213 was enacted to provide quick relief on documentary claims so presumptively meritorious that a formal complaint is superfluous, and even the delay incident upon waiting for an answer and then moving for summary judgment is needless …”

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