Wilson v. Director, Office of Workers Compensation Programs, United States Dep’t of Labor, ___ F.3d ___ (3d Cir. 2020). The final published opinion of the Third Circuit in 2020 was a case in which plaintiff, a maritime construction worker on a project to replace a Route 3 bridge spanning the Passaic River between Clifton and Rutherford, NJ, suffered hearing impairment due to the noise of the construction work. He sought benefits under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. 901 et seq. (“LHWCA”). But the LHWCA affords benefits only if a maritime...

As 2005 neared its close, the Supreme Court decided Tonelli v. Wyckoff Tp. Bd. of Educ., 185 N.J. 438 (2005), on December 28 of that year. The case arose when plaintiff Virginia Tonelli, after watching her granddaughter play soccer on a school field owned by the defendant school board, tripped over a speed the school’s parking lot on the way back to her car. She fractured her hip and later died as a result of complications from her injuries. Her husband sued the Board for negligently creating and maintaining the speed bump. Asserting that it was a non-profit entity organized...

Glassman v. Friedel, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2020). Ciluffo v. Middlesex Gen’l Hosp., 146 N.J. Super. 476 (App. Div. 1977), was a case involving how to handle a plaintiff’s claims against “successive independent tortfeasors” when the plaintiff settles with fewer than all defendants and then tries his or her case against the others. That case held that, in order to “avoid duplicating compensation to the plaintiff,” a non-settling defendant was entitled to a “settlement credit” for part of the payment made by the settling defendant. The...