Pinnacle Sports Media & Entertainment, LLC v. Greene

2017 NY Slip Op 7527, 154 A.D.3d 601, 63 N.Y.S.3d 343

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: October 26, 2017
• Docket: 4809 650046/15
• Status: Published

Opinion

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Nancy M. Bannon, J.), entered March 10, 2017, which, to the extent appealed from, granted so much of defendant/second third-party plaintiff Kai L. Greene’s motion as sought production of plaintiff Pinnacle Sports Media & Entertainment, LLC’s tax returns from 2013 to 2015, with all information other than Pinnacle’s revenue to be redacted, unanimously reversed, on the law, the facts, and in the exercise of discretion, without costs, and the motion denied.

Disclosure of tax returns is generally disfavored due to their confidential and private nature (see Lee v Chun Ka Luk, 132 AD3d 515, 516 [1st Dept 2015], lv dismissed 27 NY3d 975 [2016]), and Greene has not made a sufficiently particularized showing that the information contained in Pinnacle’s tax returns, even if redacted to only reveal Pinnacle’s revenue, is necessary to prove his claims (see id.). Moreover, he does not address why other sources are inadequate, inaccessible, or unlikely to be productive (see id.).

Concur — Tom, J.P., Manzanet-Daniels, Mazzarelli, Oing and Singh, JJ.