Earlier today, New York’s  Appellate Division, Second Department published a decision In The Matter Of Astor denying Anthony D. Marshall a stay of discovery in the estate proceedings now underway in Surrogate’s Court. This is significant because Marshall, and his mother’s former attorney Francis   X Morrissey are  defendants in a criminal case where they are accused of looting Ms Astor’s estate and forging a codicil to her will. The court took notice of the fact that discovery is often stayed in civil proceedings to safeguard the rights of criminal defendants until their criminal trials are completed but also observed that Mr. Marshall was himself  the petitioner in the estate matter and would not be entitled to this relief. Moreover, the court stated that  "The Fifth Amendment privilege ‘protects a person only against being incriminated by his own compelled testimonial communications’ (United States v Doe, 465 US 605, 611; see Fisher v United States, 425 US 391, 408). Because it is undisputed that the appellant was not compelled to create the documents at issue here, his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination ‘would not be violated by the fact alone that the [documents] on their face might incriminate [him]’ " In short, Messrs Marshall and Morrissey will be compelled to produce documents demanded as part of the civil discovery procedure even though these documents may tend to incriminate them in the criminal case pending against them.