Abuzaid v. Almayouf

2025 NY Slip Op 30036(U)
CourtNew York Supreme Court, New York County
DecidedJanuary 6, 2025
DocketIndex No. 654536/2019
StatusUnpublished

This text of 2025 NY Slip Op 30036(U) (Abuzaid v. Almayouf) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court, New York County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Abuzaid v. Almayouf, 2025 NY Slip Op 30036(U) (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2025).

Opinion

Abuzaid v Almayouf 2025 NY Slip Op 30036(U) January 6, 2025 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 654536/2019 Judge: Nancy M. Bannon Cases posted with a "30000" identifier, i.e., 2013 NY Slip Op 30001(U), are republished from various New York State and local government sources, including the New York State Unified Court System's eCourts Service. This opinion is uncorrected and not selected for official publication. INDEX NO. 654536/2019 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 364 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 01/06/2025

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK NEW YORK COUNTY PRESENT: HON. NANCY M. BANNON PART 61M Justice ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------X INDEX NO. 654536/2019 RAWAN ABDULLAH ABUZAID, MOTION DATE 09/16/2024 Plaintiff, MOTION SEQ. NO. 012 -v- DANAH ALMAYOUF, DOES 1-10, DECISION + ORDER ON MOTION Defendants. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------X

The following e-filed documents, listed by NYSCEF document number (Motion 012) 336, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 344, 345, 348, 349, 350, 351, 352, 353 were read on this motion to/for SANCTIONS .

I. INTRODUCTION In this action sounding in defamation and tortious interference with economic advantage, the plaintiff, Rawan Abdullah Abuzaid, moves pursuant to CPLR 3126 to sanction the defendant, Dana Almayouf, for failure to provide discovery. The defendant opposes the motion. The motion is granted in part.

II. BACKGROUND This case arises from the defendant’s social media posts disparaging the plaintiff. Both the plaintiff, a model and social media influencer professionally known as Model Roz, and the defendant, a self-described “social activist,” were born in Saudi Arabia and currently reside in the United States. The plaintiff commenced this action on August 9, 2019, asserting three causes of action sounding in (1) defamation by libel, (2) defamation by slander, and (3) tortious interference with prospective economic advantage. By an order dated January 24, 2023, the court granted the plaintiff’s motion for partial summary judgment as to liability on the first cause of action, with the issue of damages to be determined at trial (MOT SEQ 006). The remaining two causes of action were severed and continued.

By an order dated April 19, 2024, and entered on April 23, 2024 (“The April Order”), the court granted the plaintiff’s prior motion, pursuant to CPLR 3126, to sanction the defendant for failure to provide discovery (MOT SEQ 008). That decision, with which the court assumes the

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parties’ familiarity, sets forth in detail the relevant factual and procedural history of this case, including the defendant’s lengthy pattern of willful noncompliance with discovery demands and court orders, and continued posting, during the pendency of this litigation, of disparaging remarks on social media about the plaintiff, plaintiff’s counsel, and this case.

The April Order directed the defendant, within thirty (30) days, to: (1) produce all outstanding responsive documents and information demanded by the plaintiff and/or ordered by the court that remained in her possession, including social media messages and posts, communications with social media platforms, and relevant video files; and (2) identify responsive documents that had been lost due to deletion or loss of access to certain social media accounts. The court further ordered the defendant to (3) turn over to the plaintiff for forensic review any electronic devices she used to publish statements about the plaintiff, and that these electronic devices were to be produced within thirty (30) days of the date of the court’s order or upon notice of the identification of the plaintiff’s expert, whichever was later.

The April Order provided that “upon any failure to comply with this order, the defendant shall be precluded from offering in her defense on any dispositive motion or at trial, any evidence not so produced, and this order shall be self-executing and will become absolute upon the plaintiff’s submission of an affirmation of non-compliance to the court, without the necessity of further motion practice[.]” The court further expressly warned the defendant that “any non- compliance with this order may also result in additional sanctions pursuant to CPLR 3126 and 22 NYCRR 130-1.1(a), which include striking of the answer and entry of a default judgment” (emphasis in the original). Additionally, the April Order determined that, “in light of the prior history of this matter and the defendant’s recalcitrance and frivolous conduct occasioning this motion (22 NYCRR 130-1.1[a]), the plaintiff is entitled to recover from the defendant the attorney’s fees and costs incurred on this motion.”

The instant application, filed on July 22, 2024, seeks to further sanction the defendant for her failure to comply with the April Order and her continued disparagement on social media of the plaintiff and the court. Specifically, the plaintiff seeks an order (i) striking the defendant’s answer, (ii) entering default judgment in the plaintiff’s favor, and (iii) awarding the plaintiff her attorneys’ fees and costs in connection with this motion. The plaintiff submits an attorney affirmation wherein counsel avers that the defendant has not complied with any aspect of the April Order, having failed to produce any outstanding documents or information, identify any responsive documents that have been lost and/or destroyed, or produce any electronic devices

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for forensic examination. The plaintiff also submits a letter from plaintiff’s counsel to defense counsel, dated April 29, 2024, identifying the plaintiff’s forensic expert, and an email from the forensic expert to plaintiff’s counsel, dated May 30, 2024, advising that the defendant had neither contacted the expert nor produced any electronic devices for examination. Additionally, the plaintiff submits copies of two of the defendant’s social media posts responding to the April Order, dated April 22, 2024, and May 21, 2024, respectively. In those posts, the defendant calls the plaintiff a “prostitute” and implies that the plaintiff and/or the plaintiff’s father are seeking to “jail” her. She further disparages the court, which she identifies by name, as “corrupt,” “pett[y],” “bias[ed],” and “not sane,” and expressly states that she will not comply with the directive to produce her electronic devices for examination, stating that she “will never give [the plaintiff] any device” and “no phone, forget it! No laptop, forget it! I swear to God, I won’t give it[.]”

The defendant, in opposition, does not dispute that she has not complied with the April Order, but contends, inter alia, that her non-compliance should be excused because she is a pro se litigant and she does not trust the plaintiff with her electronic devices due to safety concerns arising from the plaintiff’s purported connections to the Saudi Arabian government.

III. DISCUSSION CPLR 3126 authorizes the court to sanction a party who “refuses to obey an order for disclosure or willfully fails to disclose information which the court finds ought to have been disclosed.” Such sanction may include “an order striking out pleadings or parts thereof, . . . or rendering a judgment by default against the disobedient party.” CPLR 3126(3).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2025 NY Slip Op 30036(U), Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/abuzaid-v-almayouf-nysupctnewyork-2025.