Douglas Elliman, LLC v TWP Real Estate, LLC
2020 NY Slip Op 07700 [189 AD3d 614]
December 22, 2020
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, February 3, 2021


[*1]
 Douglas Elliman, LLC, Appellant,
v
TWP Real Estate, LLC, Respondent, et al., Defendant. Seymour J. Weinberg, CPA, Nonparty Respondent.

Lieb At Law, P.C., Smithtown (Mordy Yankovich of counsel), for appellant.

Marco & Sitaras, PLLC, New York (Gerasimos Liberatos of counsel), for respondent.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Robert R. Reed, J.), entered July 2, 2019, which denied plaintiff's motion, pursuant to CPLR 2308 (b) (1), to compel nonparty-respondent to comply with a subpoena duces tecum requiring the production of certain bank statements and tax returns, unanimously affirmed, with costs.

At the outset, we note that plaintiff moved to compel the nonparty's compliance with its subpoena duces tecum under the incorrect subdivision of CPLR 2308. Because the subpoena was issued by an officer of the court—namely, plaintiff's counsel—it was a judicial subpoena, and therefore CPLR 2308 (b) (1), which applies only to nonjudicial subpoenas, was inapplicable (see Patrick M. Connors, Practice Commentaries, McKinney's Cons Laws of NY, CPLR C2308:1). However, since plaintiff also moved for "such other and further relief as may be just, proper and equitable," we deem the motion to have been made under CPLR 3124, which affords plaintiff essentially the same relief that it seeks (see Arverne Bay Constr. Co. v Thatcher, 250 App Div 482, 483 [2d Dept 1937]).

Nevertheless, plaintiff's motion was properly denied, because it only made vague assertions that the demanded tax returns would be relevant to its claims, and did not identify "the particular information [in] the tax returns" that will aid in the prosecution of its claims (Weingarten v Braun, 158 AD3d 519, 519-520 [1st Dept 2018]; see Demurjian v Demurjian, 184 AD3d 505, 506 [1st Dept 2020]; Nanbar Realty Corp. v Pater Realty Co., 242 AD2d 208, 209 [1st Dept 1997]; Briton v Knott Hotels Corp., 111 AD2d 62, 62 [1st Dept 1985]). Concur—Acosta, P.J., Oing, Scarpulla, Mendez, JJ.

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