69 A.D.2d 809 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1979
In an action to recover damages for, inter alia, breach of contract and conversion, plaintiff appeals from (1) an order of the Supreme Court, Suffolk County, entered August 24, 1977, which granted, in part, defendants’ motion for a protective order and (2) a further order of the same court, entered July 12, 1978, which (a) denied plaintiff’s motion to compel disclosure and (b) granted defendants’ cross motion for partial summary judgment, dismissing the first, second and third causes of action in the complaint as to all defendants. Order entered August 24, 1977, affirmed. Order entered July 12,1978, modified, on the law, by (1) deleting the second decretal paragraph thereof and (2) substituting therefor a provision granting the defendants’ cross motion only as to the second and third causes of action and the motion is otherwise denied. As so modified, order affirmed. Plaintiff is awarded one bill of $50 costs and disbursements. Early in 1975, plaintiff, a successor to Gallagher Service Corp., and defendants known collectively as "Key-way” were both engaged in the ready-mix concrete business. Plaintiff and defendants commenced negotiations to merge operations. In March, 1975 the parties opened a joint checking account and guaranteed each other’s obligations to Norcem, Inc., a supplier of cement, with respect to future purchases of cement. However, negotiations broke down and on July 17, 1975 the parties mutually executed general releases. Defendants reaffirmed their guarantee of plaintiff’s indebtedness to Norcem, Inc., for shipments of cement from March 3, 1975 to July 17, 1975. To secure that indebtedness, plaintiff assigned its accounts receivable to Norcem, Inc. Thereafter, plaintiff commenced the instant action against defendants, alleging, inter alia, that, on or about June 13, 1975 defendants orally agreed "to ’batch’, at plaintiff’s place of business in Setauket, New York, all the ready-mix concrete requirements of each of the defendants’ customers within a seven-mile radius of Setauket” in return for plaintiffs agreement to assign its accounts receivable to Norcem, Inc. In its third cause of action, plaintiff alleged that, between the months of March and June, 1975, defen