The Bold Sidebar is a podcast that its host, Jeff Horn, likes to say addresses “all things New Jersey Supreme Court.” As discussed here, I appeared on that podcast last year. Jeff was kind enough to invite me again, this time to discuss some cases that the Court decided in 2021 and some others that are on the Court’s docket for 2022.
The first group of cases includes Winberry Family Partnership v. Borough of Rutherford, 247 N.J. 165 (2021) (ruling that plaintiffs can proceed to trial against both the Borough and its Tax Collector on Civil Rights Act claims); In re Attorney General Law Enforcement Directives Nos. 2020-5 and 2020-6, 246 N.J. 462 (2021) (upholding the Attorney General’s issuance of directives that would make public the names of police officers who have been subjected to major discipline, with a potential exception for certain cases where officers were promised confidentiality); and Rios v. Meda Pharm., 247 N.J. 1 (2021) (reversing summary judgment for an employer in a hostile work environment case).
The second group includes Schwartz v. Menas, a case that challenges New Jersey’s “new business rule,” under which a new business can never seek lost profits as an element of damages (a rule that most other jurisdictions have abrogated), Jeter v. Sam’s Club, which tests the limits of the “mode of operation” doctrine that permits personal injury cases in certain instances, and Samolyk v. Berthe, which asks whether the “rescue doctrine,” under which a person who is injured while rescuing another person can sue the person whose negligence occasioned the need for rescue, should be extended to a situation where the rescue is of an animal rather than a person. [Disclosure: I am counsel for the plaintiffs in Winberry and Schwartz].
The podcast can be accessed here. Check it out.