—Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Paula Omansky, J.), entered March 28, 1996, which, inter alia, granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint only to the extent of dismissing that branch of plaintiff’s retaliatory claim relating to defendant’s alleged negative employment references, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
Summary judgment was properly denied with respect to plaintiff’s retaliatory discharge claim since defendants failed to meet their burden of providing admissible proof of a "legitimate, independent, nondiscriminatory” reason for discharging plaintiff associate (Sogg v American Airlines,
We have considered the parties’ remaining contentions for affirmative relief and find them to be without merit. Concur— Murphy, P. J., Wallach, Rubin and Williams, JJ.
