Bieber v Town of Hamburg

Holding The court held that the employee’s statements accusing the plaintiff of being a pedophile constituted non-actionable opinion and rhetorical hyperbole rather than assertions of fact. Consequently, the lower court’s grant of summary judgment to the plaintiff on the slander per se claim was reversed and the complaint was dismissed.

The court’s words

we conclude that the employee's inflammatory insults are nonactionable rhetorical hyperbole

2026 NY Slip Op 04605, at the official text

Expressions of opinion, as opposed to assertions of fact, are deemed privileged and, no matter how offensive, cannot be the subject of an action for defamation

2026 NY Slip Op 04605, at the official text

The dispositive inquiry . . . is whether a reasonable [listener] could have concluded that [the statements were] conveying facts about the plaintiff

2026 NY Slip Op 04605, at the official text