Weinstein v. City of New York

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Cynthia S. Kern, J.), entered November 7, 2011, which granted defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

A claim for prima facie tort cannot be asserted by an at-will employee to avoid this State’s rule that a wrongful termination claim is not available to him (Russek v Dag Media Inc., 47 AD3d 457 [1st Dept 2008]). Nor may plaintiff avoid the defects in his defamation claim by recasting the claim as one for prima facie tort (see Freihofer v Hearst Corp., 65 NY2d 135, 142-143 [1985]). As plaintiff withdrew his…