Opinion
01-03-2017
Joseph VELTRE, et al., Plaintiffs–Respondents, v. RAINBOW CONVENIENCE STORE, INC., Defendant, Eureka Realty Corp., Defendant–Appellant, PEC, LLC, Defendant. [And a Third–Party Action].
Hannum Feretic Prendergast & Merlino, LLC, New York (Matthew J. Zizzamia of counsel), for appellant. Kagan & Gertel, Brooklyn (Irving Gertel of counsel), for respondents.
Hannum Feretic Prendergast & Merlino, LLC, New York (Matthew J. Zizzamia of counsel), for appellant.
Kagan & Gertel, Brooklyn (Irving Gertel of counsel), for respondents.
FRIEDMAN, J.P., SWEENY, RICHTER, MANZANET–DANIELS, KAPNICK, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Barbara Jaffe, J.), entered October 16, 2015, which, to the extent appealed from, granted plaintiffs' motion to compel defendant Eureka Realty Corp. to produce a copy of its insurer's claims files, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and the motion denied. Appeal from order, same court and Justice, entered on or about March 30, 2016, which denied defendant's motion for reargument, unanimously dismissed, without costs.
Contrary to defendant's contention, plaintiffs made a demand for the entire claims file from defendant's insurer by letter from their attorney, and obtained, over defendant's objection, an order to disclose the file (see CPLR 3124 ). Nevertheless, the file is immune from discovery, because it was created by defendant's liability insurer (see Recant v. Harwood, 222 A.D.2d 372, 635 N.Y.S.2d 231 [1st Dept.1995] ), and plaintiffs failed to demonstrate either that they could not otherwise obtain "a substantial equivalent" of the material without undue hardship (see id. at 374, 635 N.Y.S.2d 231 ) or that defendant waived the privilege by relying upon the material in support of a defense (see Deutsche Bank Trust Co. of Ams. v. Tri–Links Inv. Trust, 43 A.D.3d 56, 837 N.Y.S.2d 15 [1st Dept.2007] ).