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THE DISCOVERY DEMANDS IN THIS NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION ACTION AGAINST DEFENDANT SCHOOL DISTRICT ALLEGING SEXUAL ABUSE BY A TEACHER WERE OVERLY BROAD AND UNDULY BURDENSOME AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN STRUCK IN THEIR ENTIRETY (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the discovery demands in this negligent supervision action against a school district, alleging the sexual abuse of plaintiff-student by a teacher, were overly broad and unduly burdensome. Therefore the demands should have been struck in their entirety with no attempt to prune them:

… [A] “‘ …party is not entitled to unlimited, uncontrolled, unfettered disclosure'” … . “Pursuant to CPLR 3103(a), the Supreme Court may issue a protective order striking a notice for discovery and inspection that is palpably improper” … . A notice for discovery and inspection is palpably improper if it is overbroad, burdensome, fails to specify with reasonable particularity many of the documents demanded, or seeks irrelevant or confidential information (see CPLR 3120[2] …). “Where the discovery demands are overbroad, the appropriate remedy is to vacate the entire demand rather than to prune it” … .

Here, many of the plaintiff’s discovery demands were palpably improper in that they were overbroad and burdensome … . The plaintiff’s discovery demands broadly sought, among other things, documents pertaining to any complaint of sexual abuse by any employee of the District from January 1, 1997, to the present and any suspected romantic or sexual relationship between any teacher and any student at the school from 1990 to the present. Thus, the Supreme Court should have denied the plaintiff’s motion pursuant to CPLR 3124 to compel the District to comply with the plaintiff’s first and second demands for discovery and granted the District’s application pursuant to CPLR 3103(a) for a protective order striking those demands in their entirety instead of pruning them … . Ferrara v Longwood Cent. Sch. Dist., 2024 NY Slip Op 01293, Second Dept 3-13-24

Practice Point: In this negligent supervision action against a school district alleging sexual abuse by a teacher plaintiff’s discovery demands included “documents pertaining to any complaint of sexual abuse by any employee of the District from January 1, 1997, to the present and any suspected romantic or sexual relationship between any teacher and any student at the school from 1990 to the present”. The demand was overly broad and unduly burdensome and was struck in its entirety.

 

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