Three Amigos SJL Rest., Inc. v. CBS News Inc.

In my view, the courts below erred in granting defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint as asserted by plaintiffs Dominica O’Neill, Shawn Callahan, and Philip Stein on the ground that, as a matter of law, the challenged statement was not “of and concerning” those individual plaintiffs. I, therefore, respectfully dissent.

*88To assert a viable defamation claim, the allegedly defamatory statement must be susceptible to a reasonable interpretation by those “acquainted with the parties and the subject” as being “of and concerning” the plaintiff (Carlucci v Poughkeepsie Newspapers, 57 NY2d 883, 885…