Romer v. Portnick

This is an action for defamation, founded upon separate allegations of slander and libel. Two questions of law have been presented by posttrial motions. First, is there a publication of defamatory statements if the plaintiff and the defendant’s spouse be the only persons who heard the defendant utter the words? Second, are the statements made herein defamatory as a matter of law?

The essential fact pattern is simple: Defendant, Alan Port-nick, was an officer, director and stockholder of a corporation which had owned the Young’s Gap Hotel in Sullivan County, New York. The hotel had been sold to…