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Pokoik v. Horowitz

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Jun 8, 1992
184 A.D.2d 556 (N.Y. App. Div. 1992)

Opinion

June 8, 1992

Appeal from the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (Lama, J.).


Ordered that the order is affirmed, with costs.

The plaintiff maintains that his complaint stated a cause of action to recover damages for libel per se resulting from the defendant's dissemination of a letter addressed to his friends, neighbors, and fellow residents of the Village of Ocean Beach. In light of the plaintiff's failure to plead special damages, in order for the complaint to state an actionable claim, the allegations must sound in libel per se (see, Aronson v. Wiersma, 65 N.Y.2d 592, 594; see also, Rinaldi v. Holt, Rinehart Winston, 42 N.Y.2d 369, 380-381, cert denied 434 U.S. 969). However, a review of the letter as a whole reveals that it is not reasonably susceptible to a defamatory connotation (see, Silsdorf v Levine, 59 N.Y.2d 8, 12, cert denied 464 U.S. 831). Therefore, the complaint was properly dismissed (see generally, Steinhilber v Alphonse, 68 N.Y.2d 283, 290). Thompson, J.P., Lawrence, Copertino and Santucci, JJ., concur.


Summaries of

Pokoik v. Horowitz

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Jun 8, 1992
184 A.D.2d 556 (N.Y. App. Div. 1992)
Case details for

Pokoik v. Horowitz

Case Details

Full title:LEE POKOIK, Appellant, v. ABRAHAM HOROWITZ, Respondent

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department

Date published: Jun 8, 1992

Citations

184 A.D.2d 556 (N.Y. App. Div. 1992)
584 N.Y.S.2d 331