Defamation Claim by Former Co-op President Can Proceed
New York Law Journal
Ben Bedell
01 September 2015

Trump Village Co-op building at 2940-42-44 5th St., Coney Island

A former co-op board president may go forward with his defamation claim against a group of co-op shareholders who publish a website critical of him, a Brooklyn judge has ruled.

Justice Mark Partnow said in Trump Village Section 4 v. Bezvoleva, 509277/2014, that neither the common interest privilege nor the public figure doctrine protected allegedly defamatory statements made on TV4News.org about Igor Oberman and the board of Trump Village 4, a 1,100-unit complex in Coney Island.

The purpose of the common interest privilege, Partnow said, is to promote "the flow of information between persons sharing a common interest."
But the website was not limited to Trump Village residents; it is available generally on the Internet and is not password protected. As a result, it cannot be considered communication with people sharing a common interest, Partnow reasoned in his Aug. 10 opinion.

Partnow noted that a Google search of "Igor Oberman" puts TV4News.org near the top of a list of tens of thousands of search results.

"The shield provided by the common interest privilege is dissolved where the defendants disseminate the statements in a manner which exceeds the scope of this privilege or constitutes 'excessive publication,'" Partnow said, citing Stukuls v. State of New York, 42 NY2d 272, 281 (1977) and Skarren v. Household Fin. Corp., 296 AD2d 488,489-490 (2d Dept 2002).

The defendants argued that Oberman and the other board members were "limited public figures" and therefore, absent a showing of malice, a libel claim could not be maintained.

Oberman ran for City Council in 2013, finishing with 5 percent of the vote in a four-way race.

But Partnow found that "the matters at issue cannot be said to be matters of a controversy affecting the public." And since Oberman and the other board members did not "voluntarily thrust themselves into a public controversy or seek any public attention with respect to any public controversy" they are not limited public figures, he held.

The defendants, two named co-op owners and two anonymous commenters on the website identified as "Joseph Stalin" and "Aborigen," argued that the site, launched in 2012, "is plainly presented as an informal forum for the exchange of opinions by TV4 residents."

Oberman and the other plaintiffs said the website had defamed them with statements that could not be construed by an average reader as mere opinion.
The defendants "used specific, easily understood language to communicate that, among other things, Oberman and Trump Village filed frivolous cases against shareholders for opposing his views, that Trump Village's elections have not been held fairly, that Oberman manipulated the elections and the election results were fabricated, and that Oberman is spending corporate monies for his own personal purposes," Partnow noted.

A "reasonable reader" would be inclined to discount the credibility of statements by virtue of the fact they are disseminated on the Internet, Partnow said. But "Internet postings are not exempt from being libelous where they do not constitute opinion, particularly where, as here, they imply that they are based upon undisclosed facts," he said.

"Furthermore, the alleged defamatory statements were made on a website which purports to represent and be knowledgeable about the Trump Village community," he continued.

Daniel Szalkiewicz, of Daniel Szalkiewicz & Associates, who represented the plaintiffs, said the ruling was "an important precedent in the growing field of Internet defamation jurisprudence. It stands for the proposition that the common interest privilege is obliterated when you publish a website for all the world to see."

The defendants were represented pro bono by Weil Gotshal & Manges, with partner James Quinn and associates Elizabeth Hendee and Justin Bart arguing the case. Quinn said his clients would appeal.

Oberman, a graduate of New York Law School who was admitted in 1998, had recently stepped down as co-op president and is now an attorney in private practice focusing mostly on real estate issues, Szalkiewicz said.

Built in the 1960s by Fred Trump—whose son is now seeking the Republican presidential nomination—the two-building co-op was operated as subsidized middle-income housing under the Mitchell-Lama program until 1997.

Trump Village Section 4 no longer has any connection to the Trump real estate companies and is a market-rate complex where units sell for an average price of $360,000, according to the Streeteasy website.


top   contents   appendices   previous   next