| Fletcher v Dakota, Inc. |
| 2015 NY Slip Op 03461 [127 AD3d 626] |
| April 28, 2015 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
[*1]
| Alphonse Fletcher, Jr., et al., Appellants, v TheDakota, Inc., et al., Respondents. |
Cohen & Gresser LLP, New York (Nathaniel P.T. Read of counsel), forappellants.
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, New York (Christine H. Chung ofcounsel), for respondents.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Eileen A. Rakower, J.), entered May 29,2013, which granted defendants' motion for an order striking plaintiffs' cause of actionfor defamation to the extent of precluding plaintiffs from offering evidence not timelydisclosed regarding that claim, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
In this action alleging discrimination and defamation in connection with a failedattempt to purchase a cooperative apartment, the court properly precluded plaintiffs tothe extent indicated. Willfulness and contumaciousness can be inferred from what themotion court called plaintiffs' failure to comply with discovery obligations and afrustration of defendants' ability to obtain meaningful discovery as documented in itsprior orders (see Mehta vChugh, 99 AD3d 439 [1st Dept 2012]; Henderson-Jones v City of New York, 87 AD3d 498, 504[1st Dept 2011]). And even if plaintiffs' interpretation of prior orders was correct, andonly the March 5, 2013 order contained conditional sanctions, they still failed to complywith that order, first serving discovery lists where the investors' names were intentionallyredacted, and then, after the deadline, serving a list that Fletcher testified wasincomplete.
Given the foregoing, the motion court correctly concluded that plaintiffs failed tocomply with the terms of the March 5, 2013 order which provided that they wererequired to produce the list on or before March 19, 2013, with "any documents notproduced by that date to be precluded" (see McKanic v Amigos del Museo del Barrio, 74 AD3d639, 640 [1st Dept 2010], appeal dismissed 16 NY3d 849 [2011]).
We have considered the remainder of defendants contentions and found themunavailing. Concur—Gonzalez, P.J., Mazzarelli, Renwick and Gische, JJ.[Prior Case History: 2013 NY Slip Op 31146(U).]