Tillman v State of New York |
2024 NY Slip Op 00882 [224 AD3d 562] |
February 20, 2024 |
Appellate Division, First Department |
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. |
Kevin Tillman, Appellant, v State of New York, Respondent. |
Stevens & Traub, PLLC, Elmsford (Peter P. Traub, Jr. of counsel), for appellant.
Letitia James, Attorney General, New York (Kwame N. Akosah of counsel), for respondent.
Order of the Court of Claims of the State of New York (Linda K. Mejias-Glover, J.), entered February 8, 2023, which denied claimant's motion for summary judgment and granted defendant's motion for summary judgment dismissing the claim, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
Claimant was erroneously listed on New York's public sex offender registry website after his cousin assumed his name and birth date when registering as a sex offender. The error was subsequently corrected, but claimant's name continues to be listed as an alias of his cousin. Claimant's defamation claim was properly dismissed as barred by governmental function immunity (see generally McLean v City of New York, 12 NY3d 194, 199 [2009]). Even if the alleged misconduct was ministerial and not discretionary in nature, claimant has failed to show a special duty (see id. at 199, 202-203; Hephzibah v City of New York, 124 AD3d 442, 443 [1st Dept 2015], lv denied 26 NY3d 903 [2015]). Correction Law § 168-r (1) does not create a private right of action on behalf of claimant because he is not within the class of persons it is intended to protect. Indeed, claimant admits that the misconduct at issue did not reflect any discretionary decision-making, which is the subject of the immunity waiver at Correction Law § 168-r (1). Concur—Webber, J.P., Gesmer, González, Pitt-Burke, Rosado, JJ.