32 A.D.2d 520 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1969
Orders, entered January 8, 1968 and March 13, 1968, and judgment entered March 25, 1968, affirmed, with $50 costs and disbursements to defendants-respondents. We agree with the properly reasoned conclusions of Madam Justice Mangan at Special Term that the plaintiff, a supervisor and senior administrator of the Peek Slip Station of the City of New York Post Office Department, is to be considered a public official within the purview of the New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (376 U. S. 254) and that he has failed to establish the element of actual malice which is essential to his alleged causes of action. There is in fact a failure on plaintiff’s part to show a factual basis for a claim of falsity of the alleged libelous statements contained in the letter of January 22, 1963. The letter, addressed to the Postmaster of the City of New York, was allegedly written in the performance of the defendant Lepper’s duties as President of the local 'branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers. This organization was the recognized representative of the letter carrier personnel employed at the Peck Slip Station and, in substance, the letter charged the plaintiff with the improper employment of regular and substitute clerks to perform letter carrier duties in violation of postal regulations.. In view of the duties and responsibilities of Lepper as a union official, his letter to the postmaster was qualifiedly privileged as comment concerning .the acts of a public official. Certainly, the plaintiff may not recover damages for the publication of the letter “ unless he proves that the publication was made with actual malice, that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard as to whether it was false or not”. (Kruteck v. Schimmel, 27 A D 2d 837, citing Times v. Sullivan, supra, and other decisions.) In support of his claim of knowing falsity as a basis for malice, plaintiff refers particularly to the first sentence of the letter which states: “ Throughout .the years,” the writer, Lepper, had