New York Court of Appeals Roundup: Internet Service Provider Immunity, Challenge to Insurer Transaction
In their monthly column in the New York Law Journal, Roy Reardon and Mary Elizabeth McGarry discuss two particularly important cases that were decided by the Court of Appeals in June, in both of which the Court was divided. In Shiamili v. The Real Estate Group of New York Inc., the Court held (4-3) that blog operators alleged to have not only displayed an anonymous posting but also to have moved it to a more prominent area of the blog under mocking headlines and added a doctored photograph with the caption "King of the Token Jews" were immune from claims of defamation and unfair competition by disparagement under the Communications Decency Act. In ABN AMRO Bank, N.V. v. MBIA Inc., the Court held (5-2) that policyholders affected by a series of transactions that allegedly left an insurer undercapitalized could challenge the transactions in a suit against the company under the Debtor and Creditor Law and common law, and were not confined to bringing an Article 78 proceeding against the Insurance Superintendent who approved the transactions as their only avenue for relief.