Stockley v. AT & T Information Systems, Inc.

• Decision Date: 25 May 1988
• Docket Number: CV 86-1643 (RJD).
• Parties: Edward STOCKLEY, Plaintiff, v. AT & T INFORMATION SYSTEMS, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

687 F. Supp. 764

Edward STOCKLEY, Plaintiff, v. AT & T INFORMATION SYSTEMS, INC., Defendant.

CV 86-1643 (RJD).

United States District Court, E.D. New York.

May 25, 1988.

Jay M. Gallinger, DiLorenzo and Weber, Huntington Station, N.Y., for plaintiff.

Daniel A. Rizzi, Kramer, Levin, Nessen, Kamin & Frankel, New York City, for defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

DEARIE, District Judge.

AT & T Information Systems, Inc. (ATTIS), the defendant in this defamation action, has moved for an order dismissing the complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) and for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. For the reasons stated below, the defendant's motions are granted.

FACTS

During late 1984 and early 1985, Edward Stockley, the plaintiff, was employed by ATTIS as a Business Office Manager in ATTIS' Jericho, Long Island, office. His responsibilities included training new ATTIS sales representatives, many of whom were women.

In late January, 1985, John P. McCormack, an executive in ATTIS' personnel office, received an anonymous letter, signed "Sales Representative," complaining about working conditions and management at the Jericho office. Among the numerous gripes presented in the letter were charges that Ted Minor, Stockley's direct supervisor, had engaged in sexual harassment, that a hostile work environment existed at the Jericho office, and that union grievances in connection with harassment were pending against Minor and Stockley. McCormack Aff. Ex. A. McCormack initiated investigations into all of the complaints raised in the anonymous letter. Defendant's Brief at 7 n. 15; McCormack Aff. ¶ 6. Only the charges of sexual harassment are germane to this case, and the details of the resulting investigation are of critical importance to the issues raised by defendant's motion.

During the month of February, 1985, McCormack and his staff went to the Jericho office to investigate the sexual harassment allegations. After being promised anonymity, more than 20 employees made statements to the investigators; a number of these implicated Stockley (and Minor) in behavior that could be considered sexual harassment. Stockley and Minor were also interviewed.

McCormack states that he and his staff took notes during the interviews and later typed the notes verbatim. McCormack Reply Aff. ¶ 4. The handwritten notes have not been produced, but the typewritten notes were presented to the Court, with the names of the interviewees deleted. McCormack Aff. Ex. D; Dahut Aff. Ex. F. The interview notes were summarized in a table, with detailed explanatory footnotes, that was made part of McCormack's report on Stockley and Minor. Dahut Aff. Ex. A Tab 3. The report was prepared during the first week of March, 1985, and transmitted to William L. Dahut, Stockley's and Minor's superior in the ATTIS chain of corporate command. McCormack's superiors in the personnel office may also have seen the report.

In addition to the summary of the interview notes, McCormack's report included information from Carol Resta, to whom the investigators had been led by some of their interviews. Resta had been transferred to ATTIS' Jericho office in December, 1985, and had worked briefly under Stockley's supervision before quitting. The McCormack report included a letter from Resta to Paul Caswell, an ATTIS executive, that was dated February 6, 1985, and a letter from Resta to McCormack that was written after McCormack had interviewed her. In both letters, Resta claimed that she left ATTIS because of Stockley's frequent harassment of her, including unwanted touching and comments laden with sexual innuendo. McCormack Aff. Exs. E, F, G; Dahut Aff. Ex. A Tab 2. She has repeated this claim under oath. McKee (nee Resta) Aff. ¶¶ 2-3, 7, 9. Resta never filed suit against ATTIS; in a settlement executed on May 8, 1985, she released ATTIS from possible liability for sex discrimination in exchange for reinstatement with back pay. McKee Aff. Ex. E.

Stockley was questioned about the charges against him on March 19, 1985 in an interview with McCormack, Wade Taylor (on McCormack's staff) and Richard Kline (on Dahut's staff). During this interview (and later, at deposition), Stockley denied some of the specific incidents alleged, admitted others, and denied that any of them had sexual motivations or overtones. McCormack Aff. Exs. J, K; Rizzi Aff. Ex. G. The next day, Dahut directed that McCormack be sent back to Jericho to secure signatures on the typed notes of the earlier "confidential" statements provided by employees. Stockley Aff. Ex. D. Effective March 21, 1985, Kline suspended Stockley pending final discipline. Dahut Aff. Ex. D.

McCormack objected to seeking the interviewees' signatures, noting the prior promise of confidentiality. Stockley Aff. Ex. D. Nevertheless, on March 29, he and his staff returned to Jericho. A number of the interviewees no longer worked at Jericho, or were out of the office, and thus were unavailable to sign their statements. Of those who did sign, many objected to doing so, and many availed themselves of the opportunity McCormack offered to amend or add to his typewritten notes. The signed statements, as amended, were forwarded to Dahut on April 1. On April 9, 1985, W. Richard White—Dahut's immediate subordinate—met with Stockley and imposed final discipline on him, including transfer to another unit, loss of a merit pay increase, and mandatory sensitivity training. Dahut Aff. ¶¶ 8, 10, Ex. D. A memorandum describing the reasons for and nature of Stockley's discipline was subsequently placed in his personnel file. Ex. to Second Amended Complaint, Rizzi Aff. Ex. C.

Stockley worked for ATTIS at his new location from April 1985 to October 1985. In resigning from ATTIS, he accepted an incentive package that ATTIS was offering its executives in an effort to reduce its work force. Rizzi Aff. Ex. I. Stockley took a new job with a company partly owned by his brother. Rizzi Aff. Ex. G. at 48.

THE COMPLAINT

On April 8, 1986, plaintiff commenced this suit in New York State Supreme Court. Plaintiff filed an amended complaint approximately three days later. Defendant removed the case to this Court on May 16, 1986. After discovery, plaintiff filed a second amended complaint on May 6, 1987, which defendant answered on June 19, 1987.

The second amended complaint seeks one million dollars in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages, on two claims for relief: the first for slander and the second for libel. In his brief in opposition to ATTIS' motion to dismiss, the plaintiff identifies four specific, allegedly defamatory, communications. They are:

1. All statements regarding Stockley made by McCormack in his report of the Jericho investigation, including the table and text summarizing McCormack's interviews with Jericho employees;

2. The typed notes which McCormack and his staff asked the Jericho employees to sign, which plaintiff asserts were prepared after March 20, 1985;

3. White's oral statements of the reasons for disciplining Stockley, which were made at the April 9, 1985, meeting;

4. The memo placed in Stockley's personnel file sometime after April 24, 1985.

Defendant urges dismissal of the complaint on the grounds that claims based on this group of statements are barred by the statute of limitations, fail to state a claim for defamation, and fail to raise material issues of fact on several elements of a defamation cause of action.

STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS

New York applies a one-year statute of limitations to intentional torts, including libel and slander. N.Y.Civ.Prac.Law § 215 subd. 3 (McKinney 1972 & Supp.1988). Because this action was commenced on April 8, 1986, any claim for relief based on an allegedly defamatory publication that took place before April 8, 1985 is time-barred. Therefore, plaintiff's claims that are based upon McCormack's investigation report or the typed notes offered for signature to the Jericho employees, both of which were undisputedly prepared prior to April 1, 1985, must be dismissed.

Plaintiff concedes the applicability of a one-year statute of limitations but contends that claims based on the McCormack report and interview notes are not barred because they were republished during the limitations period. Oral Arg. Tr. at 17-20; Plaintiff's Brief at 9-10. The Court concludes that plaintiff's position lacks merit, in light of applicable New York authority.

The general rule in New York is that the statute of limitations in an action for libel runs from the time of first publication. Gregoire v. G.P. Putman's Sons, 298 N.Y. 119, 81 N.E.2d 45 (1948); Berger v. Gilbert, 65 A.D.2d 882, 410 N.Y.S.2d 427 (3d Dept. 1978). Gregoire did, however, leave room for an exception to the rule: separate and later republications in a different form. In recent years that exception has been applied. See Rinaldi v. Viking Penguin, Inc., 73 A.D.2d 43, 425 N.Y. S.2d 101 (1st Dept. 1980) (reissue in paperback of book previously published in hardcover constituted separate publication for statute of limitations purposes); see generally Practice Commentary C215:3 to N.Y. Civ.Prac.Law § 215 (McKinney 1972 & Supp.1980). These cases relate to printed and commercially marketed works, and offer little direct guidance for the application of New York's rule here. However, they certainly offer no support for plaintiff's position.

The precise nature of plaintiff's claim that the McCormack statements were republished is not exactly clear. One theory seems to be that each time an ATTIS official reviewed the McCormack documents — before meeting with Stockley and before writing the memo to Stockley's file — McCormack's alleged libel was published anew. This theory is clearly defeated by New York's single publication rule. See Gregoire, supra; Osmers v. Parade Publications, Inc., 234 F.Supp. 924 (S.D.N.Y. 1964); cf. Rinaldi, supra. The rule is designed to restrict the subject of an allegedly defamatory writing to a...