Opinion
January 27, 1986
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Orange County (Rubenfeld, J.).
Order affirmed, insofar as appealed from, with costs.
This action involves three newspaper articles written by defendant Levine, concerning a mother's efforts to protect her three-year-old daughter from sexual abuse by her father. The first two articles used only a fictional name. However, the third article used the name of the child's mother and described her preparation for and testimony at a New York State Senate-Assembly hearing on child abuse. The article also stated that after she "told her story in this column, the county's Child Protective Services got into the act" and charged the father with first degree sexual abuse. The first and second articles, by themselves, contained nothing which would permit a finding that they were "of and concerning" plaintiff, a requirement for a cause of action sounding in libel (see, Springer v Viking Press, 90 A.D.2d 315, affd 60 N.Y.2d 916). However, the subsequent publication by the same defendant established an identifying link through the third article, which used plaintiff's former wife's name and referred to and incorporated the earlier articles (see, Van Ingen v Mail Express Pub. Co., 156 N.Y. 376; see also, Bruno v New York Daily News Co., 89 A.D.2d 260). Moreover, that part of the third article which incorporated the two previous articles was not privileged, since that portion was not a report of a legislative or other official proceeding (see, Holy Spirit Assn. v New York Times Co., 49 N.Y.2d 63). Therefore, plaintiff was correctly granted leave to replead the first and fourth causes of action so as to include the third article as part of those causes of action, and summary judgment dismissing the second cause of action in its entirety was properly denied. Gibbons, J.P., Bracken, Rubin and Kunzeman, JJ., concur.