Publications
Provision in employee handbook mandating arbitration of employment-related disputes is invalid to the extent that the handbook also included a disclaimer which provided that nothing therein created a legally valid contract.
The plaintiff, the former vice president of technical underwriting, filed an action under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination alleging disability discrimination.
Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2016
Continued employment may be sufficient to establish that the employee agreed to be bound by the terms of an arbitration requirement for employment-related disputes.
The employer appealed the trial court order denying its motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s wrongful discharge claim and to compel arbitration.
Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2016
CEPA waiver provision does not bar a race discrimination claim that is “substantially independent” from the retaliatory discharge claim.
The plaintiff, the former director of Legal and Governmental Affairs, sued her former employer under both CEPA and the NJLAD. The trial court dismissed the NJLAD claim based upon the finding that it was barred by the waiver provision of CEPA.
Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2016
Claims against the employer—sexual assault by a co-worker—that are not premised upon claims of discrimination under the NJLAD, are barred by the exclusivity provisions of the New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Act.
The employee and her husband sued her employer and her supervisor after the employee was sexually assaulted by a co-worker. The plaintiff alleged that the employer and her supervisor were negligent in failing to provide a safe workplace.
Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2016
Attorney’s failure to assert claim in the underlying case is not malpractice when the plaintiff could not have recovered had claim been asserted.
A New Jersey appeals court affirmed the lower court’s finding that, while there was “at least a genuine issue of material fact as to whether [d]efendant breached a duty to [p]laintiff” . . .
Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2016
An attorney’s mere drafting of a document containing representation to a non-client third-party must be distinguished from the attorney having made the representation.
A New Jersey appeals court affirmed the trial court’s dismissal of third-party legal malpractice claims while reinstating the non-client plaintiffs’ claim, which alleged common-law fraud against the defendant attorney.
Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2016
No “settling and suing” allowed. Court relies on Muhammad and settlement colloquy by judge and defense counsel to reject legal malpractice claim.
The plaintiff sued his former attorney for failing to advise him of the effects of his workers’ compensation settlement. The plaintiff entered into a settlement agreement for $60,000.
Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2016
No CGL coverage for excessive consent judgment seeking damages for contractor’s defective work.
In a suit for insurance coverage by a homeowner as assignee of the contractor’s claim for coverage against a CGL carrier, the North District Court of Florida held that where the claimant’s alleged defects, in the form of replacement of
Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2016
Third Circuit disallows extrinsic evidence to establish a “fresh wrong” when advertising injury began prior to insurance policy inception.
The Navajo Nation brought suit in the District of New Mexico against Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and affiliated companies for advertising and selling goods under federally registered Navajo trademarks beginning in March 2009.
Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2016
Metaphysics of causation: Eastern District of Pennsylvania finds no proximate link between use of police car and traffic stop injury.
Police officer Alan Petrosky responded to a motor vehicle accident involving two vehicles.
Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2016