ESTATE OF ROLAND GRYBAUSKAS, Deceased

ESTATE OF ROLAND GRYBAUSKAS, Deceased. (1176/12) — In this contested administration proceeding, the decedent’s son Stefan Grybauskas (the movant) both interposed objections to the petition of the decedent’s spouse, Lisa Larson (the respondent), seeking letters of administration, and crosspetitioned for issuance of letters of administration to himself. The movant now moves this court for an Order directing the “decedent’s matrimonial lawyer, Lisa Larson or Lisa’s matrimonial lawyer¹ to turn over decedent’s complete divorce file.”

The respondent had commenced both a divorce action (the matrimonial action) and an action for constructive trust (the constructive trust action, and together with the matrimonial action, the Supreme Court actions) against the decedent in Supreme Court, Kings County; however, the decedent passed away prior to trial thereon. Thereafter, the instant contested proceedings were commenced and the parties engaged in pre-trial discovery. In April 2012, the movant served a subpoena duces tecum on Mr. Hirschhorn (Hirschhorn), the decedent’s attorney in the matrimonial action, seeking production of the decedent’s divorce file to the office of the movant’s counsel. Hirschhorn did not comply with the subpoena. The respondent’s counsel filed a Note of Issue dated March 28, 2013, together with a Certificate of Readiness certifying that all discovery in this matter had been completed. Subsequent to the filing of the Note of Issue, the movant served a second subpoena duces tecum on Hirschhorn on June 5, 2013, directing production to the clerk of this court on July 11, 2013, of “each and every document or piece of evidence collected, prepared, filed, served and/or exchanged” in the Supreme Court actions, “including but not limited to, the pleadings.” By letter to movant’s counsel dated June 10, 2013, Hirschhorn invoked attorney-client privilege and declined to honor the subpoena with regard to the file pertaining to the matrimonial action absent an order of the court. With respect to the constructive trust proceeding, Hirschhorn stated that the pleadings are a matter of public record and as such are freely available to the movant.