Opinion
January 14, 1986
Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County (George Bundy Smith, J.).
Special Term, in granting plaintiff's motion for a protective order, held that the demand for the production of certain loan applications and related documents of persons who were prospective purchasers of shares in the defendant cooperative corporation violated the confidentiality those persons could expect from plaintiff. However, the purchase agreements executed by each of the prospective purchasers and given to plaintiff as part of each loan application provided, inter alia: "I shall furnish the Sponsor with copies of all loan applications which I may make, immediately upon submission of the same to the lending institutions." This negates the bald assertion by plaintiff that its customers had an expectation of privacy with respect to the loan applications.
With respect to plaintiff's claim that its procedures and policies governing approval of loan applications constitute trade secrets, this information is directly relevant to defendants' counterclaims, which are based on the manner in which plaintiff applied its procedures and policies. Under these circumstances, documents claimed to constitute trade secrets are nevertheless discoverable (see, Matter of Minerals Chems. Philipp Corp. [Panamerican Commodities — World Commerce Corp.], 15 A.D.2d 432, appeal dismissed 11 N.Y.2d 1109, mot to resettle denied 12 N.Y.2d 672, cert denied sub nom. World Commerce Corp. v Minerals Chems. Philipp Corp., 372 U.S. 910).
We, therefore, grant defendants' motion for production of the documents but remand to Special Term to ensure proper protection against any unwarranted disclosure of such data.
Concur — Murphy, P.J., Kupferman, Ross, Asch and Ellerin, JJ.