The Legal Reader

After what appears to be a college alumni prank, two New York men are suing their alma mater over an announcement in the school's newsletter stating that they were "life partners" who had been married. It added that they were leaders of a nonexistent group called the Gay Rights Brigade.

Ross Weil, 29, and Brett Royce, 28, college buddies and former New York housemates, filed a $1.5 million defamation suit against American University in Manhattan federal court on Aug. 30, claiming the school acted maliciously and with "gross negligence" by printing the announcement.

The Class Notes section of the spring edition of American Magazine, a quarterly publication for the Washington, D.C., university, asserted that Weil and Royce tied the knot in Boston on June 10, 2006.

The newsletter also trumpeted that Weil, a certified public accountant, was named "chief operating officer of the Gay Rights Brigade," a made-up group.

"No one contacted my clients to check the information," said lawyer Michael Kaufman, who represents Manhattan residents Weil and Royce. "Obviously, neither of my clients submitted it."

Details here from the New York Post.