Lehman

In the underlying marital dissolution proceeding, the trial court granted wife’s motion to compel production of documents but only as to property in existence on the date the parties separated. Wife contends the court’s ruling imposes an impermissible restriction on her right to discovery. We agree and issue a writ.

I.

The parties separated in March 1983 after a six-and-one-half-year marriage. Husband, a physician, subsequently terminated the medical practice he started in 1979, and opened a new office under the name West Orange Medical Group, Inc. Over the next few years he formed two satellite health care centers—East Orange Medical Group, Inc., and South Orange Medical Group, Inc. He also organized Western Medical Systems, Inc., a management corporation which administers the clinics’ daily activities. Husband no longer practices medicine; instead, he oversees the entire operation. Some of his former patients do, however, obtain medical care and treatment at the clinics.

The instant dispute arises out of wife’s efforts to examine the corporations’ books and records. She contends the corporations are community property, that they are merely a continuation of husband’s…