De Lesline v. State
| Decision Date | 30 December 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 65496,65496 |
| Citation | 91 A.D.2d 785,458 N.Y.S.2d 79 |
| Parties | Elias DE LESLINE, Appellant, v. STATE of New York, Respondent. (Claim) |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
Before SWEENEY, J.P., and KANE, CASEY, YESAWICH and LEVINE, JJ.
Appeal from an order of the Court of Claims, entered October 20, 1981, which dismissed the claim.
Claimant seeks to recover for damages allegedly suffered when a photograph of claimant and other fellow inmates at the Great Meadow Correctional Facility was published in the New York Times. The photograph, which showed the inmates in a classroom setting during an examination, accompanied an article describing the Skidmore College "University Without Walls" program which provides Great Meadow inmates, including claimant, continuing education. None of the inmates was identified by name in the photograph's caption.
It is alleged that the State, through the prison superintendent, maliciously allowed this picture to be published without first obtaining claimant's consent, thereby inflicting severe emotional distress upon claimant. The superintendent's action is also said to have violated claimant's statutory and constitutional rights to privacy and to have caused him to endure cruel and unusual punishment. As no cognizable cause of action had been asserted, the Court of Claims dismissed the claim. We affirm.
At the outset, we note that public policy prohibits a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress from being brought against the State (LaBelle v. County of St. Lawrence, 85 A.D.2d 759, 445 N.Y.S.2d 275). In this instance, even in the absence of this public policy, dismissal was appropriate. The claim and additional evidentiary material furnished, particularly the affidavit of the prison's deputy superintendent stating that he specifically informed the photographer of the prison regulation forbidding publication of an inmate's photograph without the latter's permission, make it clear that claimant's conclusory allegations of malice lack any factual basis (LaBelle v. County of St. Lawrence, supra, p. 760, 445 N.Y.S.2d 275.)
Nor is there substance to the charge that the prison authorities infringed upon claimant's right to privacy. The constitutional right encompasses only the "most personal and intimate matters" such as marriage, child-bearing, and private sexual morality (Crosby v. Workers' Compensation Bd., 57 N.Y.2d 305, 456 N.Y.S.2d 680, 442 N.E.2d 1191 [1982] )....
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...Co., 532 F.2d 69, 76 (8th Cir.1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 855, 97 S.Ct. 150, 50 L.Ed.2d 131 (1976). See also De Lesline v. State, 91 A.D.2d 785, 458 N.Y.S.2d 79, 80 (1982). This view has also been held in this district. In Mimms v. Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc., 352 F.Supp. 862 (E.D.Pa.19......
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