THE DENIAL OF A MOTION TO PRECLUDE EVIDENCE WAS NOT AN APPEALABLE ORDER (FIRST DEPT).
The First Department held the denial of a motion to preclude evidence was not an appealable order:
[Supreme Court] denied defendants-appellants’ motion to preclude evidence of any alleged misrepresentations and/or breaches of contract not previously pled in the second amended complaint in support of the respective fraud and breach of contract causes of action, and held that plaintiffs could rely upon such evidence by amending their interrogatory answers in the future, unanimously dismissed, without costs, as taken from a nonappealable order.
“An evidentiary ruling made before trial is generally reviewable only in connection with an appeal from a judgment rendered after trial” … . Here, defendants’ motion to preclude, which was made to limit plaintiffs’ allegations to those asserted in a second amended complaint, notwithstanding that outstanding discovery remained, including critical depositions, did not involve an evidentiary issue pertaining to the merits of the controversy or a substantial right to justify appellate review (see CPLR 5701[a][2][iv], [v] …). National Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, PA v Razzouk, 2020 NY Slip Op 08004, First Dept 12-29-20
