Pursuant to CPLR 3126, a court may impose sanctions, including the striking of a pleading or preclusion of evidence, where a party refuses to obey an order for disclosure or willfully fails to disclose information which the court finds ought to have been disclosed. Before a court invokes the drastic remedy of precluding a party from offering evidence at trial, there must be a clear showing that the failure to comply with court-ordered discovery was willful and contumacious. Here, the plaintiff failed to make a clear showing that the defendants willfully or contumaciously disobeyed a discovery order or acted in bad faith. Accordingly, the Supreme Court providently exercised its discretion by denying that branch of the plaintiff's motion which was pursuant to CPLR 3126 to strike the defendants' answer.
Borchkhadze v. McMahon, NY Slip Op 01077 (2d Dep't February 26, 2025)
