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FORMER STUDENT’S ALLEGATIONS DEFENDANT COLLEGE BREACHED ITS AGREEMENT THAT IT WOULD NOT DISCLOSE ITS DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE STUDENT TO SCHOOLS TO WHICH THE STUDENT APPLIED FOR ADMISSION PROPERLY SURVIVED THE COLLEGE’S MOTION TO DISMISS; ADOPTING AND APPLYING THE HEIGHTENED STANDARD FOR DEFAMATION BY IMPLICATION, THE DEFAMATION CAUSE OF ACTION SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISMISSED (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department, modifying Supreme Court, determined defendant college breached its agreement with plaintiff-student regarding the disclosure of information about the school’s disciplinary proceedings alleging sexual misconduct. After finding the student had violated the code of student conduct the student was expelled. The student was then acquitted of criminal charges stemming from the same allegations. The student and the school entered an agreement prohibiting the school from disclosing information about the disciplinary proceedings to schools to which the student applied for admission. The complaint alleged the school breached that agreement and included a cause of action for defamation by implication. The breach of contract causes of action properly survived the motion to dismiss, but the defamation cause of action should have been dismissed:

” ‘Defamation by implication’ is premised not on direct statements but on false suggestions, impressions and implications arising from otherwise truthful statements” (id. at 380-381). We now join the other Departments in adopting the heightened legal standard for a claim of defamation by implication … . Under that standard, “[t]o survive a motion to dismiss a claim for defamation by implication where the factual statements at issue are substantially true, the plaintiff must make a rigorous showing that the language of the communication as a whole can be reasonably read both to impart a defamatory inference and to affirmatively suggest that the author intended or endorsed that inference” … . …

The disclosure that plaintiff was found responsible in a student disciplinary proceeding for sexual misconduct and assault as defined in a student code of conduct does not imply that there was a criminal proceeding … . …

 … [A]lthough plaintiff may wish that additional information from the College would have provided further context for the truthful information that was conveyed, the disclosure to Buffalo State did not imply anything false about plaintiff … . Bisimwa v St. John Fisher Coll., 2021 NY Slip Op 02962, Fourth Dept 5-7-21

 

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