A New York state appeals court on Thursday upheld the dismissal of a defamation suit targeting WPIX-TV and its reporter Magee Hickey over a 2014 story that misidentified a fifth-grade teacher accused of bullying her student.

The ruling, which reinforced New York’s “single publication” rule in defamation cases, found that neither the television station nor Hickey had been “grossly irresponsible” in running the story and then failing to retract it until the lawsuit was filed a year later.