Summary
affirming dismissal of plaintiffs defamation action because the same claims had been dismissed in a federal action and because the federal court had "aptly described" plaintiff as "libel proof"
Summary of this case from Jewell v. NYP Holdings, Inc.Opinion
April 7, 1998
Appeal from Supreme Court, New York County (Louis York, J.).
Plaintiff is precluded from relitigating in this civil action the facts and issues involved in the searches of his property and his subsequent arrest, since those matters have already been exhaustively litigated in criminal proceedings and concluded against him (see, People v. Carroll, 200 A.D.2d 630, lv denied 83 N.Y.2d 850; People v. Guy, 121 A.D.2d 741, lv denied 68 N.Y.2d 813). Similarly, the IAS Court properly dismissed plaintiff's causes of action for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress, such claims having already been rejected in Federal litigation in the course of which the District Court aptly described plaintiff as "libel proof" (Jones v. Globe Intl., 1995 WL 819177 [D Conn, Sept. 26, 1995, Covello, J., Civ No. 3:94:CV01468 (AVC); see also, Jones v. Trump, 1997 U.S. Dist LEXIS 7324 [SD NY, May 22, 1997, Scheindlin, J., 96 Civ 2995 (SAS), 96 Civ 6927 (SAS)]; see generally, Guccione v. Hustler Mag., 800 F.2d 298, 303, cert denied 479 U.S. 1091).
We have considered plaintiff's other arguments and find them to be without merit.
Concur — Milonas, J.P., Nardelli, Mazzarelli and Saxe, JJ.