# Abbamont v. Piscataway Township Board of Education

> Supreme Court of New Jersey · December 16, 1999 · 163 N.J. 14

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9736660

## Case

- **Full name:** Joseph P. Abbamont, Jr., Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Piscataway Township Board of Education, Defendant-Appellant
- **Court:** Supreme Court of New Jersey
- **Decided:** December 16, 1999
- **Citations:** 163 N.J. 14; 746 A.2d 997; 1999 N.J. LEXIS 1644
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Opinion of the court
- **Judges:** Verniero
- **Cited by:** 11 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9736660

## Opinion text

PER CURIAM.
We affirm the judgment of the Appellate Division substantially for the reasons set forth in Judge Skillman’s opinion below, 314 N.J.Super. 293, 300-03 , 714 A.2d 958 (1998). Judge Skillman concluded that this Court’s affirmance of Abbamont v. Piscataway Township Board of Education, 238 N.J.Super. 603 , 570 A.2d 479 (App.Div.1990), by an equally divided Court on the question whether a punitive damage claim under the Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA), N.J.S.A. 34:19-1 to -8, may be maintained against a public entity, 138 N.J. 405 , 650 A.2d 958 (1994), {Abbamont I), constituted the controlling law under the “law of the case” doctrine, and therefore was binding on the lower courts in this case. 314 N.J.Super. at 301-303 , 714 A.2d 958 .
Having so recently addressed in Cavuoti v. New Jersey Transit Corp., 161 N.J. 107 , 735 A.2d 548 (1999), the question whether a public entity may be liable for punitive damages under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD), N.J.S.A 10:5-1 to —49, we decline at this time to revisit the issue raised in Abbamont I *15 whether a public entity may be liable under CEPA for punitive damages.

---

Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9736660. Public record. Not legal advice.