Opinion
No. 3167.
March 27, 2008.
Appeal from order, Supreme Court, New York County (Edward H. Lehner, J.), entered July 24, 2007, which granted defendant's motion to dismiss the complaint, deemed an appeal from judgment (CPLR 5501 [c]), same court and Justice, entered September 20, 2007; said judgment unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, the motion denied and the complaint reinstated.
Rottenberg Lipman Rich, P.C., New York (Harry W. Lipman of counsel), for appellant.
Kelly, Rode Kelly, LLP, Mineola (George J. Wilson of counsel), for respondent.
Before: Friedman, J.P., Gonzalez, McGuire and Moskowitz, JJ.
The motion court erred when it viewed defendant's statements as merely an unfavorable assessment of plaintiffs work performance. In the context of informing parents of two and three year olds that the children's teacher has been terminated, defendant's statements were reasonably susceptible to a defamatory meaning and slanderous per se because they directly implied that plaintiff had done something so egregious that it made her unfit to practice her profession even one more day ( see People v Grasso, 21 AD3d 851; Chiavarelli v Williams, 256 AD2d 111).