MINEOLA – A lower court erred when it allowed the president of a construction company that undertook a public works project to submit evidence of corporate financial loss in a jury trial that led to a $5.5 million award for defamation, the Appellate Division, Second Department ruled.
Finding that the special damages portion of the award – some $2.5 million – was granted in error, the appeals panel in Brancaleone v. Mesagna, 09586-99, determined that Justice John DiNoto incorrectly allowed the jury to consider evidence of financial losses suffered by the plaintiff’s company. (The decision was published in the Jan. 31 Law Journal, p. 23, col. 5.)
