Opinion
11964 Index No. 650273/15 Case No. 2020-01755
10-06-2020
FIRST EQUITY REALTY, Plaintiff–Respondent, v. The HARMONY GROUP, II, et al., Defendants–Appellants.
The Seniawski Law Firm, PLLC, New York (Barbara L. Seniawski of counsel), for appellants. Lowenstein Sandler LLP, New York (Rebecca J. Ryan of counsel), for respondent.
The Seniawski Law Firm, PLLC, New York (Barbara L. Seniawski of counsel), for appellants.
Lowenstein Sandler LLP, New York (Rebecca J. Ryan of counsel), for respondent.
Kapnick, J.P., Oing, Scarpulla, Shulman, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Joel M. Cohen, J.), entered on or about February 3, 2020, which denied defendants' motion to vacate a prior order denying their request to extend expert disclosure deadlines, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The court providently exercised its broad discretion to supervise discovery in denying defendants' motion to extend the expert disclosure deadlines to permit them to complete disclosure with a substituted expert (see Matter of DataSafe Inc. v. American Express, 2 A.D.3d 224, 225, 769 N.Y.S.2d 30 [1st Dept. 2003] ). The court appropriately considered the facts and the equities affecting the parties, particularly that the action had been pending for five years, and that the court had previously granted multiple extensions of the expert discovery deadlines. Defendants' request to substitute their expert came less than three months after the court had granted them a lengthy extension, over plaintiff's objection, in what the court emphasized was the "final extension" of discovery deadlines. Further, while defendants categorize their expert's withdrawal as "voluntary," the record reflects that the conflict between them was foreseeable and avoidable.
We have considered defendants' remaining arguments and find them unavailing.