Opinion
March 13, 1990
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Bronx County (Bertram Katz, J.).
On the defendant and third-party plaintiff's motion to strike the note of issue on the ground that all pretrial discovery had not been completed, the court, sua sponte, severed the third-party action from the main action. In our view, this was an inappropriate response to the motion since, contrary to the statement of readiness, the main action was not ready for trial. Moreover, there was no significant delay in the commencement of the third-party action that would warrant a severance. (Cf., Vita Food Prods. v Epstein Sons, 52 A.D.2d 522.) Since, however, the case involves an 87-year-old plaintiff, the matter should proceed to trial as expeditiously as possible and we therefore condition our vacatur of the severance accordingly. We note that we were advised on oral argument that discovery in the third-party action has now been completed and that the trial of the main action is scheduled for March 13, 1990.
Concur — Sullivan, J.P., Ross, Ellerin, Wallach and Smith, JJ.