Court Sides with Daily News in Judge's Libel Suit

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In his 17-page decision last week in Martin v. Daily News, LP et al. (Case No. 100053/08), New York Supreme Court Judge Martin Shulman ruled against Brooklyn Judge Larry Martin, who alleged he was defamed in a 2008 article by the New York Daily News.

Judge Martin alleged the offending article accused him of hearing a case involving an attorney who previously had represented him in an action before New York's Commission on Judicial Conduct, a purported conflict of interest. Judge Shulman held that Judge Martin, in his capacity as a public official, failed to satisfy the elevated actual malice burden of proof to sustain his defamation claim.

"[B]ecause defendants' statements about Martin related solely to his role as a public official, the burden rests with (Martin) to demonstrate not only that the statements are false, but with clear and convincing evidence that defendants acted with actual malice in publishing the falsehoods," Judge Shulman wrote in his opinion.

Tip of the hat to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (www.rcfp.org) for its coverage of the case.