| Rodriguez v United Bronx Parents, Inc. |
| 2010 NY Slip Op 01366 [70 AD3d 492] |
| February 16, 2010 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| Edwin Rodriguez, an Infant, by His Parent and Natural Guardian,Christina Rodriguez, et al., Appellants, v United Bronx Parents, Inc.,Respondent. |
—[*1] Kenny, Stearns & Zonghetti, LLC, New York (Gino A. Zonghetti of counsel), forrespondent.
Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Howard R. Silver, J.), entered August 26, 2009,which, to the extent appealed from, granted plaintiff's cross motion pursuant to CPLR 3126 tostrike defendant's answer solely to the extent of granting plaintiff a missing witness charge as toNadia James and Victor Martinez, unanimously modified, on the law and the facts, the crossmotion to strike granted and the matter remanded to Supreme Court for a trial on the issue ofdamages, and otherwise affirmed, without costs.
"Although actions should be resolved on the merits whenever possible (see Catarine vBeth Israel Med. Ctr., 290 AD2d 213 [2002]), a court may strike a pleading as a sanctionagainst a party who refuses to obey an order for disclosure (see CPLR 3126 [3])" (Reidel v Ryder TRS, Inc., 13 AD3d170, 171 [2004]). A court may strike an answer only when the moving party establishes "aclear showing that the failure to comply is willful, contumacious or in bad faith" (seePalmenta v Columbia Univ., 266 AD2d 90, 91 [1999]).
Here, plaintiff established that defendant's failure to comply was willful and contumacious,given its repeated and persistent failure to comply with five successive disclosure orders (see Goldstein v CIBC World Mkts.Corp., 30 AD3d 217 [2006];Min Yoon v Costello, 29 AD3d 407 [2006]; compare Pascarelli v City of New York, 16 AD3d 472 [2005]).Defendant's failure to adequately explain what efforts were made to locate the documents itfailed to disclose, or to explain its inability to provide the last known addresses of its formerresidents or employees, also supports a finding that its failure to comply was willful.Furthermore, defense counsel's "Affirmation of Search" did not indicate whether he was thecustodian of defendant's records, what records were searched, who conducted the search, whatthe search consisted of, and the statement was made upon "information and belief." Accordingly,this statement is devoid of detail and insufficient. Concur—Gonzalez, P.J., Saxe,Moskowitz, Abdus-Salaam and RomÁn, JJ.