90 A.D.2d 464 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1982
Order of the Supreme Court, New York County (Price, J.), entered March 2, 1982, which in an action seeking damages for libel, converted defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint under CPLR 3211 (subd [a], par 7) into a motion for summary judgment and then denied that motion with leave to renew after discovery proceedings, reversed, on the law, with costs, and the motion to dismiss the complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211 (subd [a], par 7) is granted. This libel action has its genesis in a newspaper article attributing certain statements to the defendant with regard to an action previously commenced by the founders of the defunct Fame model agency against Gerard and Eileen Ford, the plaintiffs herein. The defendant, who is an attorney, represented the individuals who sued the Fords and, others in the previous action. As set forth in the instant complaint, the defendant said, describing the allegations against the Fords in the previous action: (1) that they personally “sabotaged” Fame Models, Ltd., into bankruptcy; (2) that the plaintiffs personally mismanaged the said agency so as to “capture” its models for themselves; (3) that the plaintiffs “used their positions as stockholders of Fame for their own personal benefit”; and (4) that the plaintiffs created “a vehicle for getting the models away from Elite”. Defendant moved to dismiss the complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211 (subd [a], par 7) on varied grounds, the most pertinent of which is the claim that the statements attributed to him were absolutely privileged under section 74 of the Civil Rights Law as a “fair and true report of [a] judicial proceeding”. The motion was accompanied by an affidavit to which was annexed various documents. Responding affidavits were submitted on behalf of the plaintiffs. The court converted the motion to dismiss into one for