Nadrowski v. Wazeter
| Decision Date | 23 January 1969 |
| Citation | 298 N.Y.S.2d 305,23 N.Y.2d 899 |
| Parties | , 246 N.E.2d 159 Leon F. NADROWSKI, Appellant, v. Francis J. WAZETER, Respondent. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, 29 A.D.2d 741, 286 N.Y.S.2d 904.
Brophy, Boychuk & Steinberg, New York City, for plaintiff-appellant.
Daniel Danziger, White Plains, for defendant-respondent.
Physician brought slander action against attorney for statement at meeting of organization made up of descendants of Polish extraction that physician was a part of a communist plot to remove attorney from office. The complaint alleged that the physician had been injured in his professional standing and in the community but did not allege special damages.
The Supreme Court, Special Term, New York County, Gerald P. Culkin, J., entered an order denying a motion to dismiss the complaint, and the attorney appealed.
The Appellate Division entered an order March 27, 1968 which reversed, on the law, the order of the Special Term and granted the motion to dismiss the complaint. The Appellate Division held that not all words spoken in disparagement of a professional man ipso facto are actionable per se, and that words, to be actionable, must touch him in his profession, and that words which merely impute misconduct unconnected with his profession are not actionable without proof of special damages.
The physician appealed to the Court of Appeals, contending that the Special Term properly found that the allegedly slanderous words spoken by attorney would tend to injure or prejudice the reputation of the physician in his profession and were therefore actionable without proof of special damages, and that the Appellate Division erred in reversing the Special Term by limiting application of general rules governing slander per se and failing to consider all circumstances and extrinsic facts connected with the action, and failing to take into account that the historical classification of libel and slander based on form is no longer valid.
Order affirmed, with costs.
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Figari v. New York Tel. Co.
...alleged to state a cause of action in defamation where the statements are not defamatory per se (see, e.g., Nadrowski v. Wazeter, 23 N.Y.2d 899, 298 N.Y.S.2d 305, 246 N.E.2d 159; Danko v. F. W. Woolworth Co., 29 A.D.2d 855, 288 N.Y.S.2d 509; Klein v. McGauley, 29 A.D.2d 418, 288 N.Y.S.2d 75......
-
Matherson v. Marchello
...(Cruikshank v. Gordon, 118 N.Y. 178, 23 N.E. 457; Nadrowski v. Wazeter, 29 A.D.2d 741, 286 N.Y.S.2d 904, affd. 23 N.Y.2d 899, 298 N.Y.S.2d 305, 246 N.E.2d 159), (3) that plaintiff has contracted a loathsome disease (Simpson v. Press Pub. Co., 33 Misc. 228, 67 N.Y.S. 401) and (4) that impute......
-
Held v. Pokorny
... ... LaVin, 181 Misc. 508, 42 N.Y.S.2d 857 (Sup.Ct.1943) ... 30 Kraushaar, supra note 29 ... 31 See Nadrowski v. Wazeter, 29 A.D.2d 741, 286 N.Y.S.2d 904 (1st Dep't 1968), aff'd, 23 N.Y.2d 899, 298 N.Y.S.2d 305, 246 N.E.2d 159 (1969). ("Not all words `spoken ... ...
-
Silver v. Mohasco Corp.
...alleged statement, it cannot support an action for slander (Nadrowski v. Wazeter, 29 A.D.2d 741, 286 N.Y.S.2d 904, affd. 23 N.Y.2d 899, 298 N.Y.S.2d 305, 246 N.E.2d 159). In his twelfth and thirteenth causes of action asserting, respectively, claims in prima facie tort and intentional infli......