Defamation

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A recent case, Cogle v. Bergstein (Supreme Court, New York County, decided Nov. 18, 2013) illustrates the pitfalls that exist when pleading defamation and discrimination claims in New York State courts. Plaintiff, a nurse, worked for the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation (HHC) at Bellevue Hospital.  She alleged that she was suspended based on defamatory…

Read More Court Dismisses Plaintiff’s Defamation and Failure-to-Accommodate Disability Discrimination Claims
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Plaintiff Ese O’Diah, a black man from Nigeria, sued his former employer Roastown Coffee and its owner Doug Shin for employment discrimination (alleging that he was fired because of his race, color, and national origin) and defamation. Defendants claimed that plaintiff was fired for stealing money from the store cash register. The Southern District of…

Read More Plaintiff Gets to Jury on Discrimination and Defamation Claims, Notwithstanding Theft Allegation
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Remember Alexandra Marchuk?  She’s the Vandy (!) Law grad who now finds herself as a defendant in a counter-suit (below) filed by defendants Faruqi & Faruqi and Juan Monteverde in response to the sexual harassment lawsuit she filed last month (which I wrote about here).  In it defendants seek $15 million on each of six counterclaims, including…

Read More The Empire Strikes Back: Law Firm Files $15M Counterclaim Against Ex-Associate
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Today an Appellate Division, Third Department panel held, in Yonaty v. Mincolla, that false accusations that one is gay, lesbian, or bisexual no longer qualify as defamation “per se”.  Defamation “per se” does not require proof of economic or pecuniary harm because statements falling into that category “are commonly recognized as injurious by their nature,…

Read More False Accusations of Homosexuality Held Not Defamatory Per Se
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Below is the response filed by Dominique Strauss-Kahn this week in the lawsuit brought against him by Nafissatou Diallo. Defendant’s counterclaims – that is, his affirmative claims against Ms. Nafissatou – begin on page 8.  Specifically, his counterclaim is for damages arising from Ms. Diallo “knowingly and intentionally making a false report to law enforcement…

Read More Dominique Strauss-Kahn Strikes Back Against Hotel Maid
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It’s an old story, really:  boy meets girl, boy cheats on girl, boy leaves second girl, girls post nasty comments about boy on www.liarscheatersrus.com, boy files lawsuit alleging defamation and tortious interference with prospective business relations… In Couloute v. Ryncarz et al., 11-cv-5986 (SDNY Feb. 15, 2012), the court found that plaintiff failed to state plausible claims…

Read More Court dismisses attorney’s lawsuit against ex-girlfriends for online rants
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In Rashada v. New York Post et al (NY Sup. August 11, 2011), 2011 Slip Op. 32234(U), Judge Scarpulla dismissed plaintiff’s defamation action against the New York Post and the author of an article allegedly suggesting that plaintiff – one of several imams at a mosque and a Department of Corrections employee – had “radicalized”…

Read More NY trial court dismisses defamation action – statements constituted opinion, not fact
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Field v. Grant, 10-23898 (Sup. Ct. Suffolk Cty. 2010): After attorney Gary P. Field discovered that someone was anonymously posting comments about him on two websites (Ripoff Report and LawyerRatingZ), Field sued the suspected author of the posts – Robert Grant, the ex-husband of one of Field’s clients – for defamation. The postings included statements…

Read More Lawyer’s Defamation Suit Over Online Insults Dismissed; Allegedly Defamatory Comments Constituted Non-Actionable Opinion
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