Helm v. Lentine
Opinion of the Court
— In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for medical malpractice, the plaintiff appeals (1), as limited by her brief, from so much of an order of
Ordered that the order dated May 29, 2007, is affirmed insofar as appealed from; and it is further,
Ordered that the order dated October 23, 2007, is affirmed; and it is further,
Ordered that one bill of costs is awarded to the defendant Gwenn Dentine, M.D., EC.
The Supreme Court properly granted the motion of the defendant Gwenn Dentine, M.D., P.C. (hereinafter Dr. Dentine), for a protective order quashing the plaintiffs subpoenas for, and notices to take the depositions of, two nonparty witnesses. The plaintiff provided insufficient notice of such depositions (see CPLR 3107; Monaco v Camie-Campbell, Inc., 256 AD2d 1214, 1216 [1998]).
“The supervision of disclosure and the setting of reasonable terms and conditions therefor rests within the sound discretion of the trial court and, absent an improvident exercise of that discretion, its determination will not be disturbed” (Lolly v Brookdale Univ. Hosp. & Med. Ctr., 45 AD3d 537, 537 [2007]). In this case, the Supreme Court providently exercised its discretion in determining that the defendants had substantially complied with outstanding discovery requests. We also agree with the Supreme Court that no showing was made that defendants’ conduct was in any way willful or contumacious (see Jenkins v Proto Prop. Servs., LLC, 54 AD3d 726, 726-727 [2008]; Maffai v County of Suffolk, 36 AD3d 765, 766 [2007]).
The Supreme Court properly determined that the contents of the defendants’ malpractice insurance policies could not be disclosed to any party outside of the litigation, as it was subject to abuse if widely disseminated (see Butt v New York Med. Coll., 7 AD3d 744, 745 [2004]; McLaughlin v G. D. Searle, Inc., 38 AD2d 810, 811 [1972]).
The parties’ remaining contentions either have been rendered
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.