Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Immuno AG: The Court of Appeals Strikes Back

By John Chiaramonte
John Chiaramonte is a third-year student at Albany Law School. He graduated from Wake Forest University in 2012 with a double major in Political Science and English.
John currently works part-time as a legal assistant for New York Business Development Corporation, a small business lending company. He is also the assistant coach for the men’s and women’s tennis teams at Siena College.
While his main focus in law school has been business transactions, John found his interest was piqued researching defamation law in New York. This paper was prepared for Professor Bonventre’s Court of Appeals Intensive Seminar.

For years the New York Court of Appeals has served as the beacon of reason for many other state courts. It was no different when the court confronted the issue in Immuno AG. v. Moor-Jankowski (Immuno II).

The Immuno case serves as a great example of a defining moment where the New York Court of Appeals differentiated state law from federal law, refusing to be bullied by the highest federal court in America. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive look at the seven year Immuno trilogy.

The paper begins with a background of state and federal law, then examines the Court of Appeals’ first ruling in Immuno I. It proceeds to the Supreme Court’s decision in Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co., and ends with the Court of Appeals’ second ruling in Immuno II.

This paper concludes that the ruling of the Court of Appeals in Immuno II reestablished a foothold for New York in libel cases.
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To read the paper, open HERE.