A businessman who was identifiedfalsely he sayson online forums as the culprit who dumped a horse’s head in a local official’s pool has made a case for defamation per se, a Brooklyn appellate court ruled yesterday.
“The published allegation that the plaintiff put a severed horse head in a Town Board member’s swimming pool constituted defamation per se…and, therefore, did not require the plaintiff to plead special damages,” Justice Jeffrey Cohen (See Profile) wrote for a unanimous panel of the Appellate Division, Second Department, in LeBlanc v. Skinner, 2011-03120.
