Judiciary
Judge Allowed to Sue N.Y. Daily News, But Not a Lawyer Thought to Be a Source
Posted Jul 17, 2009, 05:57 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A Manhattan judge has tossed another New York judge’s $10 million defamation claim against a lawyer thought to be the source of two critical newspaper columns in the New York Daily News.
But the plaintiff, Judge Larry Martin of Brooklyn, may still pursue his claim against the newspaper and the author of the columns, Errol Louis, the New York Law Journal reports. The columns addressed judicial corruption and claimed Martin presided over a case involving a lawyer who had represented him before the judicial conduct commission.
Judge Martin Shulman ruled (PDF posted by the New York Law Journal) that the claims against lawyer Ravi Batra should be dismissed because there is no showing he had control over the two articles, the second of which could be considered defamatory.
Shulman said the second article could lead an average reader to believe that Martin is “a corrupt jurist” under investigation. The article said "corruption can be hidden or subtle" and pointed the reader to "the case of Justice Larry Martin."