Today in Ferreyr v. Soros, a five-judge panel of the Appellate Division, First Department modified a trial court order, thereby dismissing all of plaintiff Adriana Ferreyr’s claims against her ex-boyfriend George Soros except for assault and battery.
In her 2011 complaint, Mr. Ferreyr accused Mr. Soros of reneging on a promise to buy her an apartment and physically attacking her. The case has, even by litigation standards, hardly been smooth sailing. For example, it was reported in February that plaintiff smacked Soros in the head during a deposition.
Initially, the First Department held:
A claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress has not been stated as there is no allegation of extreme and outrageous conduct. As a matter of law, the individual defendant’s failure to buy plaintiff a condominium apartment as allegedly promised cannot be said to be extreme and outrageous. The claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress fares no better because there is no allegation of a “breach of a duty owed to plaintiff which either unreasonably endangers the plaintiff’s physical safety, or causes the plaintiff to fear for her own safety”. Nor does the complaint sufficiently allege that defendant acted with disinterested malevolence in support of plaintiff’s cause of action for prima facie tort. The promissory estoppel claim also fails since the facts alleged do not show that defendant caused “unconscionable injury” to plaintiff as a result of any reasonable reliance she placed on his alleged promises.
However, it permitted plaintiff’s claims for assault and battery to stand, reasoning that while the police report attached to the complaint “refutes some of plaintiff’s assertions, [it] does not contradict the complaint’s allegation that defendant committed assault and battery by slapping plaintiff’s face and grabbing her throat.”