Publications
Summary judgment warranted when alleged personal injury on commercial property due to maintenance hazard is based on conjecture that is not supported by actual evidence.
This case speaks to so many defense attorneys who are tasked with defending our clients against slip-and-fall plaintiffs who cannot articulate or prove the claimed “hazard” that purportedly caused their injuries.
Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 2019
One cannot name fictitious entities in a premises liability lawsuit and later seek to amend the complaint under Rule 4:26-4 where the exercise due diligence would have revealed the identities of the proper defendants.
The plaintiff claimed he fell and sustained injuries due to a defective sidewalk abutting a building at 78-80 Mallory Avenue in Jersey City.
Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 2019
Under New Jersey’s Ongoing Storm Doctrine, summary judgement is appropriate in slip-and-fall accident occurring during a snow storm while snow removal contractor was on-site and working.
This is another case where timing matters. The plaintiff arrived at Wal-Mart after it had been snowing heavily for approximately three hours.
Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 2019
Appellate Division affirms trial court’s denial of plaintiff’s motion for a new trial as plaintiff failed to demonstrate that jury interrogatories were “misleading, confusing, or ambiguous.”
The plaintiff visited the emergency department after experiencing several days of abdominal pain.
Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 2019
The reasonable diligence standard required by the discovery rule is objective and only looks to what a person might have known by exercising reasonable diligence.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court was faced with the issue of whether the plaintiff satisfied the discovery rule as to toll the running of the statute of limitations in her medical malpractice action.
Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 2019
Untimely request for permissive appeal of class certification ruling deemed dead on arrival.
The district court certified a plaintiff class in the case but later reconsidered and decertified the class.
Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 2019
Florida case highlights importance for early resolution in construction defect cases.
Heron’s Landing Condominium Association filed a complaint against D.R. Horton, Inc.-Jacksonville, the developer and general contractor of the project. The project consisted of 240 residential units in 20 buildings.
Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 2019
Independent contractors engaged in foreign or interstate commerce in the transportation industry now fall squarely within the Federal Arbitration Act’s Section 1 exclusion.
Dominic Oliveira was employed as an interstate truck driver for New Prime, Inc. under an operating agreement that deemed him to be an independent contractor.
Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 2019
The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying motion to amend a complaint because the claimant acted with undue delay and offered no credible explanation for the new theory of recovery.
Michele Evans brought this employment action against the City after she was terminated from the Philadelphia Police Department following a positive drug test.
Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 2019
Mandatory arbitration agreement must be supported by affirmative consent, not simply by an acknowledgment of receipt of the policy. Further, court rejected proposition that continued employment can manifest agreement to the arbitration requirement.
In a published and, therefore, binding opinion from the Appellate Division, the court held that Pfizer’s “training module” on its mandatory arbitration policy applicable to employment-related claims was not legally sufficient sin
Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 2019