Three Amigos Sjl Restaurant, Inc. v. Cbs News, Inc.

15 N.Y.S.3d 36 (2015)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

On November 30, 2011, federal agencies charged seven alleged members and associates of the Gambino and Bonanno crime families with, transporting and harboring illegal aliens to work as dancers. The crime defendants controlled certain strip clubs and forced women who had been trafficked from eastern Europe to dance at the clubs. As the women would be placed in sham marriages for citizenship purposes, the federal operation was called 'Operation Dancing Brides.' Federal authorities executed a search warrant at The Cheetah Club. The organized crime conspirators had negotiated terms with strip clubs, including Cheetah's, for trafficked dancers to perform. The women were brought to Cheetah's, where they were video recorded reading contracts and where the women thereafter danced. Ps take the position that no one at Cheetah's was involved in the crimes underlying Operation Dancing Brides. According to the complaint, Times Square Restaurant No. 1, Inc. provides management and promotional services for the Champagne and VIP lounge areas of Cheetah's. Dominica O'Neill (P) is president of No. 1, and Sean Callahan (P) is employed as a manager and consultant whose responsibilities include food and beverages, as well as vendor coordination. Times Square Restaurant Group (P) operates a booking agency for dancers at Cheetah's, and Philip Stein (P) is employed by the Group as a manager. P, doing business as The Cheetah Club, is not a party to this appeal. D broadcast the event during its noon news broadcast. At 5:00 p.m., D again broadcast a news program called The Evening Report, with information about the raid and those involved. D included a statement by David Carlebach, an attorney for Cheetah's. Carlebach was broadcast saying, 'There is absolutely no La Cosa Nostra, as you say, connection.' At 9:25 p.m., D's local website posted a summary of the story, embedding a PDF copy of the indictment. Ps sued D alleging that ds, in broadcasting and publishing stories concerning Operation Dancing Brides, defamed them. Ps claimed that the stories were misleading, false, and malicious and that plaintiffs had no connection with the Mafia, Operation Dancing Brides, human trafficking, extortion, or any other human rights abuse. Ps allege defamation per quod, defamation per se, injurious falsehood, and respondeat superior. D moved to dismiss because the challenged news reports were not 'of and concerning' Ps, as a matter of law. Ps claimed that D designated Ps in such a way so as to let those who knew them understand that they were the persons meant and that Ps were entitled to so prove that fact to a jury. Ps pointed to the reports' assertions that Cheetah's was 'run by the mafia' and 'at the center' of a human trafficking ring. Ps claimed that D was asserting that O'Neill, Stein, and Callahan were members of organized crime. D's motion was granted. All the challenged statements related solely to Cheetah's and dismissed the claims of the Times Square plaintiffs and the individual plaintiffs. Ps appealed.