Category Archives: News

On August 5, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a precedential decision in the matter of M.S. v. Susquehanna Twp. Sch. Dist., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 24639 (3d Cir. 2020), clarifying the scope of a school district’s potential Title IX liability for sex-based harassment.

On August 13, 2020, New Jersey’s Appellate Division issued a published opinion in the matter of Repko v. Our Lady of Lourdes Med. Ctr., Inc., 2020 N.J. Super. LEXIS 204, where it held that a pleading could not be amended to “relate back” to the original date of filing, where the original complaint was defective to the point of lacking standing in the first place.

McGivney, Kluger, Clark & Intoccia’s Emily Weisslitz recently obtained a dismissal of a fraud action brought against the firm’s client, a professional organization, by a physician member of that organization. The member physician had been certified by the defendant professional organization for several years, including for more than a decade following his retirement from the active practice of medicine.

On July 29, 2020, New Jersey’s Supreme Court issued a decision in the matter of Sun Chemical Corp. v. Fike Corp., 2020 N.J. LEXIS 880 (2020). The decision was issued in response a question of law certified by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which was “whether a Consumer Fraud Act [“CFA”] claim [can] be based, in part or exclusively, on a claim that also might be actionable under the Products Liability Act.”

On June 30, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a decision in the matter of B.L. v. Mahanoy Area Sch. Dist., 964 F.3d 170 (3d Cir. 2020), ruling on a public school student’s federal Civil Rights Act claims arising out of a punishment that the student received for making a social media post over a weekend, away from school.

Recently in Borelli, Administratrix v. Renaldi, et al., the Connecticut Supreme Court held that the decision by a police officer to pursue a fleeing motor vehicle is discretionary in nature and thus entitled to governmental immunity pursuant to Conn. Gen. Stat. §52-557(a)(2).

With the future of qualified immunity around the nation up in the air, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a decision on July 9, 2020 addressing the limits of qualified immunity in a §1983 Civil Rights Act lawsuit, alleging excessive force stemming from a police-involved shooting.

In a published decision, New Jersey’s Appellate Division recently affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of a wrongful death and survival lawsuit in the matter of The Estate of Frank A. Campagna, et al. v. Pleasant Point Properties, et al. (A-2989-18T1) (App. Div. June 17, 2020), holding that a “rooming house,” as that term is defined under New Jersey law, owes no duty to conduct background checks on prospective residents.

This week, New Jersey’s Supreme Court issued a decision in the matter of Friedman v. Martinez, (A-37/81-18) (081093), which affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of a number of claims made alleging “intrusion upon seclusion.” The plaintiffs were women who worked in an office building, where the defendant, Teodoro Martinez, while working as a janitor in the building, had allegedly implanted a camera in several women’s’ restrooms and locker rooms.

In a recently decided appeal in the matter of Minelli v. Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City, A-4431-18T1, the Appellate Division reinstated a personal injury claim filed by a claimant more than two (2) years after the accident, but after one of the defendants had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.