Labor & Employment Law

Standard used by the court in evaluating an employee?s defamation claim

By Harvey Randall, Esq.

Standard used by the court in evaluating an employee?s defamation claim
Matter of Casale v Metropolitan Transportation Authority, 2008 NY Slip Op 00423, Decided on January 24, 2008, Appellate Division, First Department

Nicholas Casale was termination from his position as the Authority?s Deputy Director of Security with the Metropolitan He asked the court to order [1] that the Authority give him a name-clearing hearing and [2] that the Authority reinstate him to his former position.

The Appellate Division said that ?defamation alone, even by a government entity, does not constitute a deprivation of a liberty interest protected by the Due Process Clause. Some ?stigma plus? must be shown before mere defamation will rise to the level of a constitutional deprivation.?

Further, said the court, ?in the context of defamation involving a government employee, defamation ? is not a deprivation of a liberty interest unless it occurs in the course of dismissal or refusal to rehire the individual as a government employee or during termination or alteration of some other legal right or status.?

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on January 28, 2008 (boomark / email).