Rosario Vignali (Senior Counsel-White Plains) and Samantha Marrelli (Associate-White Plains, NY) prevailed on a motion to dismiss in the Supreme Court of New York, New York County, on behalf of a global consumer electronics company client. The plaintiff in this case sought declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as compensatory damages, asserting claims for defamation, "negligent misidentification", and intentional infliction of emotional distress arising from an incident at a store. The plaintiff alleged that a security supervisor asked him to leave the premises based on a purported prior incident, and that a store employee falsely reported to 911 and responding NYPD officers that his conduct warranted removal. The court held that: 1) the defamation claim was insufficiently pleaded because the complaint failed to contain the alleged defamatory words or statements; 2) “negligent misidentification” is not a valid claim under New York State law; and 3) the plaintiff failed to plead extreme and outrageous conduct, intent, or causation to support the emotional distress claims. The court’s opinion borrowed language from Russ and Samantha’s motion to dismiss briefings verbatim, and because the pleading defects could not be cured, it dismissed the complaint against our client in its entirety.