Opinion
10-13-2015
RANDALL CO. LLC, Plaintiff–Respondent, v. 281 BROADWAY HOLDINGS LLC et al., Defendants–Appellants.
Shafer Glazer, LLP, New York (Mika Mooney of counsel), for appellants. Weg & Myers, P.C., New York (David McGill of counsel), for respondent.
Shafer Glazer, LLP, New York (Mika Mooney of counsel), for appellants.
Weg & Myers, P.C., New York (David McGill of counsel), for respondent.
Opinion Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Charles E. Ramos, J.), entered on or about April 16, 2015, which denied defendants' motion for a protective order, and directed defense counsel to produce its legal bills, unanimously reversed, on the law and in the exercise of discretion, without costs, and the motion granted.
Although “recourse to an opposing attorney's time sheets may ... be proper in an appropriate case” (Match v. Match, 168 A.D.2d 226, 227, 562 N.Y.S.2d 115 [1st Dept.1990] ), plaintiff's request is premature. It has not made a sufficient showing of the relevance of such records at the present stage of the proceedings (Matter of Goldstick, 177 A.D.2d 225, 247, 581 N.Y.S.2d 165 [1st Dept.1992] ).
Should plaintiff establish at a later juncture the requisite need for defendants' legal bills, we note that “bills detailing the work done by the attorneys are clearly privileged material” (De La Roche v. De La Roche, 209 A.D.2d 157, 158, 617 N.Y.S.2d 767 [1st Dept.1994] [internal quotation marks omitted] ) and are therefore subject to redaction (Teich v. Teich, 245 A.D.2d 41, 665 N.Y.S.2d 859 [1st Dept.1997] ).
We have considered and rejected plaintiff's remaining contentions.
GONZALEZ, P.J., MAZZARELLI, SWEENY, RICHTER, MANZANET–DANIELS, JJ., concur.