Opinion
July 17, 1995
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Goldstein, J.).
Ordered that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.
We disagree with the Supreme Court's finding that the defendant's requests for additional documents were unreasonable or irrelevant to the investigation of the plaintiffs' claim. Nevertheless, under the circumstances of this case, including the plaintiffs' substantial cooperation in the investigation and their subsequent production of the requested documents, we conclude that the defendant has failed to sustain its burden of demonstrating that the plaintiffs engaged in a pattern of willful noncooperation so as to warrant dismissal of their first cause of action ( cf., Johnson v. Allstate Ins. Co., 197 A.D.2d 672). Sullivan, J.P., Miller, Copertino, Joy and Friedmann, JJ., concur.