Category Archives: Defamation

This was originally posted on the SGR Blog.

It is easy for a plaintiff to plead the elements of causes of action for defamation and tortious interference with economic advantage. But, as a recent case—involving a condo unit owner, the managing agent, and a real estate broker—demonstrates, it is far more difficult to assert and sustain a plausible claim that can survive a motion to dismiss.

Cheryl Keeling sued the property manager of her condominium and a real estate broker for defamation and tortious interference with economic advantage in what was, in essence, a dispute between Keeling, a unit owner, and the building as to the amount of common charges she owed. Keeling owns a unit at 3614 Johnson Avenue, Bronx, New York. Silvina Salvo also owns a unit in the building. Chintan Trivedi was a property manager for the condo. And Trivedi operated Remax/ITC Realty Company.

This was originally posted on the SGR Blog.

“I am going to sue you for libel!!! A not uncommon threat in our multi-faceted media and digitalized-legal landscape. Ironically, as a recent case illustrates, there may be greater defenses to defamatory statements made in Court than to those made on Facebook.

NTC Collision Services, Inc. and Edward Baecher sued Michael E. Archer alleging that a statement made on Facebook constituted libel per se and/or that the statement was false, defamatory, and constituted libel innuendo. Archer moved to dismiss the complaint on the ground, among others, that the statements were based upon pure opinion and were not actionable.

This was originally posted on the SGR Blog.

The Court is the “umpire” when an actual baseball umpire brings suit. And, as a recent case illustrates, jurisprudential umpiring is far more complicated than simply calling “balls and strikes.”

Joseph H. West, a currently active and well-known Major League Baseball umpire, sued Paul Lo Duca, a former Major League Baseball player, for defamation. West alleged that Lo Duca made defamatory statements about him on a podcast carried on a popular sports podcast provider. Contending that, during the podcast, Lo Duca, a retired catcher, described an alleged conversation with teammate Billy Wagner, a retired relief pitcher, in which Wagner purportedly claimed that West gave him favorable ball-and-strike calls during the game because Wagner gave West access to one of his vintage automobiles.

This was originally posted on the SGR Blog.

Is it possible for a person’s reputation to be so bad the he is, in effect, “libel-proof” and not at risk of “incremental harm” from allegedly defamatory statements? A recent lawsuit, between two former New York Mets teammates, addressed that question.

Lenny Dykstra, a former Major League Baseball player, sued his former Met’s teammate Ron Darling, and the publishers St. Martin’s Press, LLC and Macmillan Publishing Group LLC, for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress, based upon allegedly defamatory statements about him in the Darling’s book.

Copyright by, and republished with permission of, Habitat Magazine

In these contentious times, politics at all levels – even at the level of co-op and condo board elections – tend to get ugly. Charges and counter-charges circulate with lightning speed. One recent condo board election led to a lawsuit over the truth of charges emailed by one of the candidates. The case turned on the definition of the D-word: defamation.

Sandra Peterson, a unit-owner at Edgemont at Tarrytown Condominium and a former president of the board of managers, was running for election against fellow unit-owner Mary Ellen Maun. During the election process, Maun sent emails to other unit-owners which, Peterson claimed, were false and defamatory and sent with the specific intent to damage Peterson’s good name and reputation in the community.

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