Opinion
December 18, 1987
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Monroe County, Mastrella, J.
Present — Callahan, J.P., Doerr, Green, Lawton and Davis, JJ.
Order unanimously modified on the law and as modified affirmed without costs, in accordance with the following memorandum: Special Term erred in failing to dismiss plaintiffs' fifth, six, ninth and tenth causes of action. Plaintiffs' ninth and tenth causes of action assert abusive discharge of an at-will employee without alleging any expressed limitation on defendants' right to terminate. Such a cause of action is not recognized in this State (Sabetay v Sterling Drug, 69 N.Y.2d 329; Murphy v American Home Prods. Corp., 58 N.Y.2d 293, 297). Further, plaintiffs' fifth and sixth causes of action alleging defamation must be dismissed for failure to set forth "the particular words complained of" (CPLR 3016 [a]; Goldberg v Sitomer, Sitomer Porges, 97 A.D.2d 114, affd 63 N.Y.2d 831, cert denied 470 U.S. 1028; Alanthus Corp. v Travelers Ins. Co., 92 A.D.2d 830, 831). Additionally, at oral argument plaintiffs conceded that their fourth cause of action, to the extent it alleged negligent investigation by Xerox employees, should be dismissed. Special Term, however, correctly sustained plaintiffs' first and second causes of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress, as plaintiffs' allegations, given every favorable inference, raise a question of fact whether defendants' conduct exceeded all reasonable bounds of decency (Kaminski v United Parcel Serv., 120 A.D.2d 409). Accepting as we must the truth of every allegation of plaintiffs' eighth cause of action sounding in fraud, we find it to be legally sufficient.