Weighing in on the long-running, contentious breakup of personal injury firm Napoli Bern, a state appeals court on Thursday upheld a referee’s decision to disallow expert testimony regarding allegedly false evidence linked to whether former firm leader Marc Bern knew about a large 9/11 memorial charitable donation.

The unanimous Appellate Division, First Department panel ruled that court-appointed referee Mark Zauderer, during a 2017 hearing focused on which firm leaders should be responsible for Napoli Bern’s total of $5 million in donations, had “correctly precluded” Bern from calling a computer forensics expert to testify about the alleged fabrication of email “read receipts” that former partner, Paul Napoli, had put into evidence.