Summary
In Fochetta v Schlackman (257 AD2d 546), the plaintiff, a former principal of the defendant corporations, challenged the validity of the surrender of his stock in the corporations.
Summary of this case from People v. GreenbergOpinion
January 28, 1999.
Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County (Harold Tompkins, J.).
Plaintiff was a principal and a 50% shareholder of each of the closely held defendant corporations until 1996 when he executed the stock surrender, the validity of which forms the focal point of the present litigation. Given the extent of plaintiff's ownership interest and managerial involvement in defendant corporations prior to the disputed stock surrender, the motion court properly determined that the attorney-client privilege was not properly invoked by defendants to deny plaintiff access to otherwise privileged pre-surrender materials essential to the proof of his claims ( see, Tekni-Plex, Inc. v. Meyner Landis, 89 N.Y.2d 123, 138). However, as plaintiff has no right to those portions of the sought billing invoices that would reveal client confidences as to services and strategy, we exercise our own discretion ( see, e.g., Collazo v. City of New York, 213 A.D.2d 270) to extend the discovery deadline as indicated, so as to, inter alia, facilitate in camera inspection of those invoices and, where necessary, their redaction ( see, Teich v. Teich, 245 A.D.2d 41).
Concur — Williams, J.P., Lerner, Rubin and Saxe, JJ.