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March 22, 2024
Defendant’s Decision To Attend His Deposition and Invoke the Fifth Forfeited Right To A Stay to Preserve His Civil Defenses
On February 5, 2024, Justice Andrew Borrok denied a defendant’s motion for a stay and granted a plaintiff’s motion to dismiss the defendant’s counterclaims and defenses based on the defendant’s invocation of the Fifth Amendment during his deposition in the case. The decision in ATX Debt Fund 2, LLC v. Natin Paul, et al, Index No. 650728/2020, noted that the defendant, Natin Paul, faced parallel criminal proceedings at the time he was deposed for this civil case. Paul invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 400 times during that deposition, including in response to questions that the Court characterized as “unquestionably material and necessary to the maintenance of his counterclaims and affirmative defenses in this case.” In a bid to preserve his counterclaims and defenses, despite refusing to answer these questions, Paul moved for a stay in the civil action. The Court denied the stay and suggested that Paul should have sought a stay before attending his deposition, explaining in part: Read More
