A state appeals court has denied a Manhattan-based personal injury firm’s dismissal effort in a case alleging it owes referral fees for hundreds of cases to a Bronx practitioner, ruling that the Bronx lawyer produced documents for each disputed case and that any plaintiff discovery failures hadn’t been shown to be “willful or contumacious.”

Plaintiff Marvin E. Goldberg, who it appears runs a solo or boutique firm founded in 1983,  “provided documents for each case for which defendants allegedly failed to pay referral fees pursuant to the parties’ purported fee-sharing agreement,” wrote the Appellate Division, First Department court in its decision.