Petitioners, the owners of a cooperative residential building located on East 66th Street in Manhattan, commenced these holdover eviction proceedings at various times between June 2006 and June 2007, following the expiration of the rental leases governing respondents-appellants’ unregulated tenancies. The proceedings, ultimately consolidated, have been vigorously litigated since their inception, spawning several prior applications and appeals to this court and the Appellate Division. This round of the battle involves respondents-appellants’ motion for leave to conduct discovery in connection with their lone remaining defense of retaliatory eviction (see Real Property Law § 223-b). For reasons that follow, we sustain the denial of the discovery motion, albeit on narrower grounds than set forth below, but *26vacate the final judgments subsequently issued against all but one of the named respondents-appellants.*