Opinion
570448/19
10-26-2021
COUNTRY-WIDE INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Yao Jian PING, Defendant-Appellant.
Per Curiam.
Order (Jose A. Padilla, Jr., J.), entered March 29, 2021, affirmed, with $10 costs.
In this action seeking a de novo adjudication of a no-fault insurance claim following a master arbitrator's award in excess of $5,000 (see Insurance Law § 5106[c] ), Civil Court providently exercised its discretion in denying defendant's motion to strike the complaint or to conditionally preclude plaintiff from offering evidence for failure to comply with discovery orders. A motion court "is afforded broad discretion in supervising disclosure and its determinations will not be disturbed unless that discretion has been clearly abused" ( Those Certain Underwriters at Lloyds, London v Occidental Gems, Inc. , 11 NY3d 843, 845 [2008] [internal quotation marks omitted]). Here, the motion court's finding that plaintiff's responses were sufficient is supported by the record and was a proper exercise of discretion (see Youwanes v Steinbrech , 193 AD3d 492 [2021] ; Lyoussi v Etufugh , 188 AD3d 604, 605 [2020] ). Nor was the court constrained by the doctrine of law of the case, which is inapplicable to prior discretionary conditional discovery orders (see Allstate Ins. Co. v Buziashvili , 71 AD3d 571, 572 [2010] ; Brothers v Bunkoff Gen. Contrs. , 296 AD2d 764, 765 [2002] ).
Civil Court also providently exercised its discretion in denying defendant's eve of trial motion to amend his answer to assert a counterclaim for $24,938.59 in no-fault benefits, where he failed to establish a reasonable excuse for his years-long delay in moving for leave to amend (see Barry v Clermont York Assoc., LLC , 144 AD3d 607, 608 [2016] ). Moreover, the proposed amendment would prejudice plaintiff at this stage of the proceedings, where discovery had been completed, a notice of trial had been filed and defendant previously limited his recovery to $15,251.76 based upon the fee schedule.
We have reviewed defendant's remaining contentions and find them to be without merit.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.
All concur.