Bill Text: NY A10659 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Establishes a cause of action against any person who gives publicity to a matter concerning the private life of a person where the matter publicized is of a kind that would be highly offensive to a reasonable person and is not of legitimate concern to the public.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-07-22 - referred to governmental operations [A10659 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A10659-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          10659

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                      July 22, 2024
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  COMMITTEE  ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Vanel) --
          read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations

        AN ACT to amend the civil rights law,  in  relation  to  establishing  a
          cause of action for publicity given to private life

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. The civil rights law is amended by  adding  a  new  section
     2  50-h to read as follows:
     3    §  50-h.  Publicity  given  to  private life. 1. A person shall have a
     4  cause of action against any person  who  gives  publicity  to  a  matter
     5  concerning  the  private  life of such principal person where the matter
     6  publicized is of a kind that would be highly offensive to  a  reasonable
     7  person and is not of legitimate concern to the public.
     8    2.  In  any  action  commenced  pursuant  to  subdivision  one of this
     9  section, the finder of fact, in its  discretion,  may  award  injunctive
    10  relief,  punitive  damages,  compensatory  damages  and reasonable court
    11  costs and attorney's fees.
    12    3. For purposes of this  section,  "publicity"  shall  mean  that  the
    13  matter is made public, by communicating it to the public at large, or to
    14  so  many  persons  that  the  matter  must  be regarded as substantially
    15  certain to become one of public knowledge. The  term  "publicity"  shall
    16  also  mean  that the matter is shared to a specific group of persons who
    17  have a special relationship to the individual whose  matter  was  publi-
    18  cized.
    19    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.




         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD15926-01-4