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Statements at Issue Were Statements of Opinion Directly Linked to the Plaintiff’s Writings—Defamation Complaint Properly Dismissed

The Second Department determined the defamation action against a newspaper was properly dismissed.  The newspaper article referred to writings by the plaintiff which were described as racist.  The article questioned whether plaintiff, who allegedly held “white supremacist” views, should be the principal of a school with minority students.  The court determined the relevant statements in the article were statements of opinion which were linked directly to quotations from plaintiff’s writings.  Therefore the statements constituted nonactionable opinion:

“Since falsity is a necessary element of a defamation cause of action and only facts’ are capable of being proven false, it follows that only statements alleging facts can properly be the subject of a defamation action'” … . In distinguishing between facts and opinion, the factors the court must consider are (1) whether the specific language has a precise meaning that is readily understood, (2) whether the statements are capable of being proven true or false, and (3) whether the context in which the statement appears signals to readers that the statement is likely to be opinion, not fact … . “The dispositive inquiry . . . is whether a reasonable [reader] could have concluded that [the statements were] conveying facts about the plaintiff” … .

In this case, the context of the complained-of statements was such that a reasonable reader would have concluded that he or she was reading opinions, and not facts, about the plaintiff. Moreover, in all instances, the Daily News defendants made the statements with express reference to the written materials authored by the plaintiff, including quotations from the books. Thus, the statements of opinion are nonactionable on the additional basis that there was full disclosure of the facts supporting the opinions … . Silverman v Daily News, L.P., 2015 NY Slip Op 05463, 2nd Dept 6-24-15

 

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