Opinion
533917
03-31-2022
Craig S. Levin et al., Respondents, v. City of Rochester et al., Appellants.
Linda Kingsley, Corporation Counsel, Rochester (Christopher S. Noone of counsel), for appellants. Phillips Lytle LLP, Buffalo (Craig A. Leslie of counsel), for respondents.
Calendar Date: February 10, 2022
Linda Kingsley, Corporation Counsel, Rochester (Christopher S. Noone of counsel), for appellants.
Phillips Lytle LLP, Buffalo (Craig A. Leslie of counsel), for respondents.
Before: Egan Jr., J.P., Clark, Aarons, Reynolds Fitzgerald and McShan, JJ.
CLARK, J.
Appeal (transferred to this Court by order of the Appellate Division, Fourth Department) from an order of the Supreme Court (Ciaccio, J.), entered July 20, 2021 in Monroe County, which partially granted plaintiffs' motion to, among other things, compel certain discovery.
This negligence action was commenced in 2019 to recover for injuries sustained by plaintiff Craig S. Levin, and his spouse, derivatively, when he was struck by a garbage truck owned by defendant City of Rochester and operated by two City employees, including defendant Vincent Paolotto, who was driving the truck. Following joinder of issue, plaintiffs sought production of, among other materials, Paolotto's employment records - specifically, any materials concerning (1) prior accidents that occurred in the course of his duties, (2) actual or contemplated prior disciplinary action, (3) actual or contemplated disciplinary action upon or following the subject accident, including termination, (4) background checks, (5) criminal records and (6) records of substance use or testing. Several months later, plaintiffs submitted a second notice to produce seeking, among other things, any materials concerning employment-related grievances filed with the City by Paolotto, including those related to any actual or contemplated disciplinary action.
Defendants then moved to vacate both notices to produce as overbroad. By order entered March 2020, Supreme Court partially granted that motion. The court initially concluded that plaintiffs largely sought information that was material and necessary for the prosecution of this action, such as truck maintenance records, materials generated at or shortly after the accident and "records of any kind generated by a postaccident investigation, including those associated with disciplinary proceedings." The court, however, struck demand number two in plaintiffs' first notice to produce, which generally sought Paolotto's employment records, finding the request for an entire personnel file to be predicated upon a theory of negligent hiring - a claim that is not asserted by and is unavailable to plaintiffs due to the City's admission that its employees were operating within the scope of their employment at the time of the accident.
During one of the depositions that followed, it was revealed that, following an investigation of the accident, Paolotto's employment with the City was terminated and he was sent a letter that provided the basis for his termination. Plaintiffs made repeated requests for that letter, but defendants declined to provide it, believing it to be protected from disclosure by Supreme Court's March 2020 order. Plaintiffs in turn filed a motion to compel its production. Defendants opposed, and Supreme Court, in a short form order entered July 2021, ordered the City to produce the termination letter. Defendants appeal. We affirm.
To the extent that defendants challenge other discovery rulings in Supreme Court's March 2020 order, we do not address them as no appeal was taken therefrom (see Salovin v Orange Regional Med. Ctr., 174 A.D.3d 1191, 1194 [2019]; Sprole v Sprole, 151 A.D.3d 1413, 1415 [2017]).
CPLR 3101 (a) requires "full disclosure of all matter material and necessary in the prosecution or defense of an action" (see Calcagno v Graziano, 200 A.D.3d 1248, 1250 [2021]; Melfe v Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, N.Y., 196 A.D.3d 811, 813 [2021]). "The words, 'material and necessary,' are... to be interpreted liberally to require disclosure, upon request, of any facts bearing on the controversy which will assist preparation for trial by sharpening the issues and reducing delay and prolixity," and the test must be "one of usefulness and reason" (Allen v Crowell-Collier Publ. Co., 21 N.Y.2d 403, 406 [1968]; see Forman v Henkin, 30 N.Y.3d 656, 661 [2018]).
Initially, although Supreme Court purported to vacate demand number two in plaintiffs' first notice to produce, which did generally seek employment records for Paolotto, earlier in its March 2020 order, the court correctly concluded that "records of any kind generated by a postaccident investigation, including those associated with disciplinary proceedings," were clearly material. In our view, by striking the subject demand, the court was merely agreeing with defendants that disclosure of Paolotto's entire personnel file should be precluded, as that category of evidence was irrelevant to this ordinary negligence action. Plaintiffs' request for materials concerning disciplinary action taken by the City following its investigation of the subject accident was notably one item amidst the multi-part demand for Paolotto's employment records, and, in light of the court's express findings regarding same, it is clear that the court did not intend to preclude materials like the termination letter. This was in line with the principle that written reports arising from postaccident investigations that were prepared in the regular course of business are generally discoverable (see CPLR 3101 [g]; Hewitt v Palmer Veterinary Clinic, PC, 145 A.D.3d 1415, 1415 [2016]; Friend v SDTC-Center for Discovery, Inc., 13 A.D.3d 827, 829 [2004]; Merrick v Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., 144 A.D.2d 878, 878-879 [1988]; Pataki v Kiseda, 80 A.D.2d 100, 103-105 [1981], lvs dismissed 54 N.Y.2d 606, 831 [1981]). Thus, pursuant to the March 2020 order, which defendants did not challenge or appeal from, defendants were required to disclose the termination letter, and Supreme Court's short form order merely conforms its directive to its decisional language (see Benjamin v Yeroushalmi, 178 A.D.3d 654, 656 [2019]; Matter of Spring v County of Monroe, 141 A.D.3d 1151, 1152-1153 [2016]; Moldofsky v Moldofsky, 43 A.D.3d 1011, 1012 [2007]; Matter of Rokitka v Bauer, 219 A.D.2d 834, 835 [1995]).
Even if Supreme Court had initially intended to preclude the disclosure of postaccident materials like the letter of termination, the letter was plainly material and necessary after depositions were had. As noted, it was revealed during depositions that, following an investigation, Paolotto's employment with the City was terminated as a result of the subject incident and that the City sent him a letter that provided the basis for his termination. The witnesses who were deposed offered competing insights into that basis. One believed that Paolotto must have been terminated for "gross negligence" as none of the other grounds for immediate termination in the applicable standards of conduct were relevant to the subject accident. Another believed that Paolotto was terminated in accordance with those standards for causing an "accident[] resulting in damage in excess of $20,000." At his deposition, Paolotto was instructed by his counsel not to answer questions concerning the termination letter.
Thus, there is reason to believe that the termination letter may contain both information concerning the outcome of the City's investigation and the basis for Paolotto's termination, and "[a]ny evidence which sheds light on how the accident occurred is patently relevant to a determination of whether there was any negligence in this accident" (Scott v Metropolitan Transp. Auth., 10 Misc.3d 1058 [A], 2005 NY Slip Op 52009[U], *6 [Sup Ct, Nassau County 2005]; see e.g. Hunlock v New York City Tr. Auth., 194 A.D.3d 522, 523 [2021]; Almalahi v NFT Metro Sys., Inc., 175 A.D.3d 1043, 1045 [2019]; Schecter v 210 E. 90th St. Owners, 271 A.D.2d 224, 225 [2000]; Meder v Miller, 173 A.D.2d 392, 393 [1991]). Although defendants are correct that personnel files are generally not discoverable in negligence actions where, as here, there is no claim of negligent hiring, retention or supervision, this rule does not unilaterally preclude the disclosure of any materials that may find their way into a personnel file (see Berk v MTA Long Is. Bus, 33 Misc.3d 1213 [A], 2011 NY Slip Op 51918[U], *3 [Sup Ct, Nassau County 2011]). Rather, the general rule is rooted in the irrelevancy of an employer's knowledge with respect to its employee's prior carelessness or misconduct and the general prohibition against the admission of propensity evidence (see Halloran v Virginia Chems., 41 N.Y.2d 386, 390-391 [1977]; Melfe v Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, N.Y., 196 A.D.3d at 813-814; Parkinson v Fedex Corp., 184 A.D.3d 433, 434 [2020]; Cheng Feng Fong v New York City Tr. Auth., 83 A.D.3d 642, 643 [2011]; Jordan v Blue Circle Atl., 296 A.D.2d 752, 753 [2002]).
We also reject defendants' argument related to the admissibility of the termination letter as this action is still at the discovery stage (see Rinker v 55 Motor Ave. Co., LLC, 173 A.D.3d 1388, 1389 [2019]; Matter of Steam Pipe Explosion at 41st St. & Lexington Ave., 127 A.D.3d 554, 555 [2015], aff'd 27 N.Y.3d 985 [2016]). Supreme Court is vested with broad discretion in controlling discovery (see Melfe v Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, N.Y., 196 A.D.3d at 813), and we discern no abuse of that discretion here.
Egan Jr., J.P., Aarons, Reynolds Fitzgerald and McShan, JJ., concur.
ORDERED that the order is affirmed, with costs.