A Manhattan appeals court has struck from a civil sex abuse and defamation case against billionaire Leon Black a litany of allegations tying him to Jeffrey Epstein, calling the allegations “scandalous and prejudicial” and reversing a lower court on the issue.

“The allegations … which employed rhetoric or detailed defendant’s misconduct toward other women and his relationships with notorious third parties, were scandalous and prejudicial, and not necessary to establish any element of plaintiff’s causes of action,” the Appellate Division, First Department court stated in a terse but strongly worded opinion.