A state appeals court on Tuesday shut down Paul Napoli's bid to pursue defamation and defamation per se counterclaims against Denise Rubin, a former employee who is pursuing a $1 million sex discrimination lawsuit against the ex-firm and Napoli himself.

The Appellate Division, First Department, said in a terse decision that Napoli “fails to state with particularity the allegedly defamatory statements, and therefore his fourth and fifth counterclaims are defective as a matter of law.”

The panel found that words at issue in the counterclaims “consist largely of verbatim quotations from [Rubin's] complaint, and thus are 'absolutely privileged and cannot form the basis of a defamation action,'” citing Flomenhaft v. Finkelstein, 127 AD3d 634.