Moskowitz

Irving Moskowitz petitioned this court for a writ of mandate directing respondent superior court to vacate its order denying petitioner’s motion for a protective order limiting the use of his deposition, and to enter an order granting appropriate protection. We initially denied the petition but, on petitioner’s application, the Supreme Court granted a hearing and retransferred the matter to this court with directions to issue an alternative writ of mandate. We have done so.

Petitioner is the plaintiff in a legal malpractice action against real parties in interest. The fourth amended complaint in that action charges real parties with negligence and breach of fiduciary duty which resulted in entry of judgment, in 1977, for $3,384,391 against petitioner in an action wherein he was represented by real parties; it is further alleged that petitioner was unable to obtain a bond or otherwise stay execution pending appeal from the judgment; accordingly, as a matter of financial survival and under threat of execution against his assets, petitioner was compelled to pay $1.75 million in settlement and satisfaction of the judgment. By means of deposition, real parties elicited from…