NY High Court Dismisses Orthodox Jew's Privacy Claim As Time-Barred

Yesterday in Nussenzweig v. diCorcia, (NY Ct. App., Nov. 15, 2007), New York's highest court agreed with a majority in the Appellate Division (see prior posting) that the statute of limitations barred a Hasidic Jew from suing a professional photographer who took his photo without consent. Photographer Philip-Lorca DiCorcia took a series of photographs of people in Times Square, including Erno Nussenzweig, and used the photos in a gallery exhibition and accompanying catalogue. Nussenzweig's interpretation of the Biblical ban against making graven images was violated by the use of the photo. The court held that New York's "single publication rule" should be applied to right of privacy actions under the state's civil rights law (Sec. 50 and 51), so that the cause of action accrued on the date the offending material was first published. Haaretz reports on the decision.