Garrett v. Wexford Health, ___ F.3d ___ (3d Cir. 2019). This appeal was brought by a prisoner who claimed, as Chief Judge Smith summarized it, that “were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs and that they retaliated against him.” The District Court dismissed his case, holding that he had not exhausted administrative remedies under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, 42 U.S.C. 1997e(a) (“PLRA”), and that his operative Complaint, after several prior iterations, violated Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8. That rule requires pleadings to contain a...

Rowe v. Bell & Gossett Co., ___ N.J. ___ (2019). This first Supreme Court opinion of the new Term, written by Justice Patterson for a unanimous Court, addresses the hearsay exception contained in Evidence Rule 803(c)(25). Plaintiff, who died during the pendency of appeals in the case, sued a number of defendants after contracting mesothelioma. All but one defendant, “Universal,” settled before trial. Plaintiff won a jury verdict as to Universal. But Universal offered into evidence interrogatory answers and deposition testimony of the settling defendants in support of a...

Even as the Appellate Division wound down the number of its published opinions in the second half of August, the Third Circuit seemed to rev up its publication of opinions. From August 14 through August 29, the court published thirteen opinions. Here are summaries of some of them (for full coverage of all of the court’s activities, check out Matthew Stiegler’s CA3blog): Golden v. New Jersey Institute of Technology, ___ F.3d ___ (3d Cir. 2019). This opinion by Chief Judge Smith involved an attorneys’ fee issue under New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A....