The Appellate Division affirmed, with costs, the Order which held defendant in civil contempt of court and ordered that he pay a fine of $500 per day until the contempt is purged. Clear and convincing evidence supports the court's entry of the contempt order. The record establishes that defendant disobeyed the plain terms of the court's earlier order requiring compliance with the subpoena, which clearly mandated that he respond to the subpoena "fully, completely, and truthfully" by March 10, 2020. Defendant failed to provide any answers to the subpoena by the deadline, submitting his first responses nearly three months later. When defendant finally did respond to the subpoena in June 2020, he submitted information that was demonstrably incomplete and untruthful. Defendant's reliance on the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse for his noncompliance is unavailing He was served with the subpoena in June 2019, months before the pandemic. Moreover, not all of the information defendant was ordered to turn over required collection from third parties or outside sources. Finally, his failure to appear at the contempt hearing - despite having been offered the option of attending via videoconference, and being on notice that his failure to appear could result in his arrest - was, in and of itself, sufficient grounds for a finding of contempt.
Sang Cheol Woo v. Spackman, NY Slip Op 04287 (1st Dep't July 8, 2021)
