ELMORE v. 2720 CONCOURSE ASSOCIATES (2008)

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Howard R. Silver, J.), entered April 17, 2007, which, to the extent appealed from, denied defendants' request for disclosure of plaintiff Maria Elmore's psychiatric history, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

While this Court may exercise its own discretion regarding the supervision of discovery, deference is generally afforded to the trial court's determinations in this regard (Don Buchwald & Assoc. v. Marber-Rich, 305 A.D.2d 338, 761 N.Y.S.2d 617 [2003] ).   Given defendants' failure to offer proper expert evidence establishing a particularized need for inquiry into matters not directly at issue in this action, the denial of their discovery request was proper (Mendez v. Equities By Marcy, 24 A.D.3d 138, 805 N.Y.S.2d 57 [2005];  Mayi v. 1551 St. Nicholas, 6 A.D.3d 219, 774 N.Y.S.2d 528 [2004] ).   Defendants' expert affidavits are conclusory and fail to substantiate the assertion that the mother's records are necessary or relevant (Scipio v. Upsell, 1 A.D.3d 500, 501, 767 N.Y.S.2d 254 [2003] ).