Van Horn v. Thompson & Johnson Equip.

• Decision Date: 01 February 2002
• Docket Number: 4,01-01822
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division
• Parties: SAMUEL VAN HORN AND ELLEN VAN HORN,, v THOMPSON & JOHNSON EQUIPMENT CO., INC., DEFENDANT, AND CLARK EQUIPMENT COMPANY, D/B/A MELROE COMPANY,CA 01-01822 SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK APPELLATE DIVISION: FOURTH JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT Decided on

SAMUEL VAN HORN AND ELLEN VAN HORN, PLAINTIFFS-RESPONDENTS v THOMPSON & JOHNSON EQUIPMENT CO., INC., DEFENDANT AND CLARK EQUIPMENT COMPANY, D/B/A MELROE COMPANY, DEFENDANT-APPELLANT

CA 01-01822

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

APPELLATE DIVISION: FOURTH JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT

Decided on February 1, 2002

BROWN & KELLY, LLP, BUFFALO (KENNETH A. KRAJEWSKI OF COUNSEL), FOR DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.

ALEXANDER & CATALANO, LLP, SYRACUSE (JAMES L. ALEXANDER OF COUNSEL), FOR PLAINTIFFS-RESPONDENTS.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

PRESENT: WISNER, J. P., HURLBUTT, KEHOE, BURNS, AND LAWTON, JJ.

Appeal from an order of Supreme Court, Onondaga County (Nicholson, J.), entered February 12, 2001, which, inter alia, denied the motion of defendant Clark Equipment Company, d/b/a Melroe Company, for a protective order.

It is hereby ORDERED that the order so appealed from be and the same hereby is unanimously modified on the law by directing defendant Clark Equipment Company, d/b/a Melroe Company, to disclose to plaintiffs all information, including design, engineering, manufacturing, and marketing records, and also including accident reports, complaints, claims, and lawsuits, involving Bobcat skid-steer models that are similar in design and operation to the Bobcat 742B model and that were involved in accidents similar to plaintiff's accident, i.e., in which a defectively designed or malfunctioning seatbar/safety bar and/or pedal interlocks led to the inadvertent movement of the Bobcat's lift arms and as modified the order is affirmed without costs.

Plaintiffs commenced this action to recover damages for injuries sustained by Samuel VanHorn (plaintiff) in an accident involving a skid-steer loader, the Bobcat 742B model, manufactured by Clark Equipment Company, d/b/a Melroe Company (defendant). Defendant appeals from an order that, inter alia, denied its motion for a protective order with respect to plaintiffs' request for production of documents, and granted plaintiffs' cross motion to compel disclosure, thereby requiring disclosure of 92,244 pages of documents produced by defendant in a Federal District Court products liability action entitled Butler v Melroe Co.

We agree with defendant that the blanket disclosure ordered by the court, which goes far beyond that requested by plaintiffs in their demands and motion to compel, would be unduly burdensome (see, Harris v Textron, Inc., 245 A.D.2d 1058; see also, CPLR 3103). It also goes far beyond what is reasonably...