An aggrieved party or a person substituted for him may appeal from any appealable judgment or order except one entered upon the default of the aggrieved party. He shall be designated as the appellant and the adverse party as the respondent.
§ 5511.Permissible appellant and respondent.
Article 55. Appeals Generally · Last amended 1963 · Last verified July 21, 2026
In one sentenceCPLR 5511 limits the right to appeal in New York to an aggrieved party or someone properly substituted for one, and bars an appeal from a judgment or order entered on that party's own default.
Full Text of CPLR 5511
Plain-English Summary
Only a person the judgment or order harms can appeal it. CPLR 5511 calls this person the aggrieved party, and the label matters: a party who won below, or one the outcome does not affect, has nothing to appeal from. The statute also lets someone properly substituted for an aggrieved party -- say, an executor stepping in after a party's death -- take up the appeal in that party's place, but only once the substitution has been made.
The section carves out one sharp exception: a party cannot appeal from a judgment or order entered on that party's own default. The idea is that a default should be challenged where it happened, by asking the trial court to open it, rather than skipped past on appeal. If the trial court refuses to vacate the default, that refusal is itself an order the party can appeal.
Once an appeal is underway, CPLR 5511 fixes the vocabulary the rest of Article 55 uses: the party who appeals is the appellant, and the adverse party is the respondent, regardless of which side started the underlying lawsuit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who counts as an aggrieved party under CPLR 5511?
An aggrieved party is someone the judgment or order harms, not any person connected to the case. A party who won the relief they sought, or whom the ruling does not touch, is not aggrieved and has no basis to appeal.
Can I appeal a default judgment against me in New York?
Not directly. CPLR 5511 bars an appeal from a judgment or order entered on the aggrieved party's own default, so a defaulting party's route is a motion to open the default in the trial court, not a direct appeal.
What should I do if I lost by default but disagree with the outcome?
Move in the trial court to vacate the default rather than filing a notice of appeal from the default judgment itself. If the trial court denies that motion, its denial is an order you can appeal.
Can someone who was not a party to the lawsuit appeal under CPLR 5511?
Only if that person has been properly substituted for an aggrieved party under the substitution provisions of Article 10, such as when an estate representative takes the place of a deceased litigant. The right to appeal follows the substitution; it does not exist before it.
If I am substituted for a party after judgment, can I still appeal?
Yes, once the substitution is complete you may appeal in place of the party you replaced, and the time to appeal runs from the substitution rather than from the original entry of judgment.
What is the difference between an appellant and a respondent?
CPLR 5511 designates the party who takes the appeal as the appellant and the adverse party as the respondent. Those labels apply on appeal regardless of who was the plaintiff or defendant in the case below.
Can a party who won below still appeal part of the decision?
Only to the extent that part of the decision aggrieves them, for example if the court granted less relief than requested. A party fully satisfied by the judgment is not aggrieved and cannot appeal it.
Advisory Committee Notes
This section is derived from CPA §§ 557 and 561. CPA § 557 has been altered and substantially shortened. The words “a person substituted for him” have been used in place of the more specific language of subds 2 and 3 of former § 557 and are intended to make it apparent that the right to appeal of a person other than a party depends solely upon whether he has the right to be substituted and has in fact been substituted for a party. CPA § 557 would seem to have permitted a person who was entitled by law to be substituted to appeal before substitution was made. The quoted words, on the other hand, require that substitution be made before the right to appeal arises, and § 1022 extends the time for taking an appeal until fifteen days after substitution is made. The right of substitution is governed by §§ 1015 to 1020. Those sections encompass all of the situations to which subd 2 and 3 of § 557 were applicable. See 8 Carmody-Wait, Cyclopedia of New York Practice 527–28 (1954).
A further reason exists for rewording subd 2 of former § 557. It has been stated that that subdivision “contemplates mainly, if not exclusively, [the situation] where the party to the record is merely a nominal one and the real party in interest is the one aggrieved because he is the real party; or where since the judgment or order there has been by death or in some other way a devolution of the entire interests or property involved in the litigation to some other person who has thus become the party aggrieved.” Ross v Wigg, 100 NY 243, 246–47, 3 NE 180, 181 (1885). The new CPLR has eliminated the concept of “real party in interest” as unnecessary (see NY Temp Comm’n on the Courts Rep III 26, 197–232, Leg Doc 6(b) (1957)) and there is no reason to perpetuate it in appeals practice.
Sections 1021 and 1022 make it possible to eliminate entirely CPA §§ 578 and 579. There is no reason to require, as did § 579 that an application for an order of substitution be made to the court to which the appeal is taken. In most cases it will be more convenient for the parties to proceed in the court from which the appeal is taken or in the court of original instance. Section 1021 permits application to any of two, or possibly three, courts at any time after final judgment. Only the court to which the appeal could be taken, however, has the power to impose conditions upon or prevent a possible appeal. With regard to an appeal which has already been taken, the court may, of course, take any action which is proper, such as reversing or affirming the judgment or order appealed from under rule 5522 or dismissing or imposing conditions upon the appeal.
This section retains the requirement that a party must be “aggrieved” in order to appeal. Although it is recognized that this word has presented problems (see Cohen & Karger, Powers of the New York Court of Appeals 391–99 (rev ed 1952)) no acceptable substitute has been evolved and its meaning is therefore left to existing case law.
This section retains also the exception relating to default judgments or orders. The preferable procedure is to require that the trial court have an opportunity to open the default and then to permit an appeal from an order refusing to do so. Further, in contrast to subdivision 2 of former § 557, a person substituted for an aggrieved party is expressly prevented from appealing by the aggrieved party’s default. The words “unless an appeal therefrom be expressly authorized by law” which were found in subd 1 of former § 557 have been omitted. Although they were added to refer to statutes which give the absolute right to appeal from default judgments of certain inferior courts (see Gilbert-Bliss, Civil Practice of New York Annotated § 557, editorial note (1943)), no court act of a court of record has been found which expressly authorizes an appeal from a default judgment or order. The civil practice act, by its terms, was only applicable to courts of record; its application to courts not of record was only by force of court acts which expressly provided that inconsistencies were to be resolved against the provisions of the civil practice act. In any event, the application of the civil practice act and rules is treated separately.
A part of subd 3 of former § 557 and that portion of subd 2 following the semi-colon have been omitted since they only reiterated what the new CPLR makes clear, that an appeal cannot be heard before substitution is made. The second sentence of former § 561 has also been omitted as unnecessary. Cf. rule 2101(c).
Amendment History
Add, L 1962, ch 308, eff Sept 1, 1963.
Source & verification. Provision text, History, and Advisory
Committee Notes are reproduced verbatim from the Consolidated Laws of New York.
Last verified July 21, 2026.
· Official source
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