Matter of Stewart v. New York City Transit Authority

In Matter of Stewart v. New York City Transit Authority, 112 A.D.2d 939, [1985] the Appellate Court which has jurisdiction over this trial court said that CPLR 3102 (c) ". . . authorizes discovery to allow a plaintiff to frame a complaint and to obtain the identity of the prospective defendants." However, the court recognized an important caveat. The court held that ". . . pre action disclosure under CPLR 3102 (c) is not available to the would-be plaintiff to determine if he has a cause of action." The court went on to reason that ". . .this limitation is designed to prevent the initiation of troublesome and expensive procedures, based upon a mere suspicion, which may annoy and intrude upon an innocent party."