The Newark General Liability team led by Partner Afsha Noran and Associate Kirandeep Kaur was successful in having the New Jersey Appellate Division uphold the Superior Court’s dismissal of a plaintiff’s lawsuit against the firm’s client, a wholesale "cash-and-carry" warehouse supplying food, equipment, and supplies specifically to foodservice operators.
The case involved a plaintiff who claimed to have suffered severe injuries after eating an allegedly E. coli-contaminated salad. However, after missing the appropriate two-year statute of limitations for personal injuries, the plaintiff filed a lawsuit asserting a breach of contract claim, which provides a four-year statute of limitations. The plaintiff’s complaint alleged that the restaurant made express representations to him that its salads were fit for human consumption and that they were “made with the finest homemade ingredients.” The plaintiff alleged that he relied on those express representations and that those representations were untrue and thus resulted in damages.
The defendants collectively moved for summary judgment, arguing that the plaintiff’s case was indeed a personal injury case and, as such, his claims were barred pursuant to the two-year statute of limitations and that the four-year statute of limitations was not applicable to this case. The Superior Court agreed and noted the New Jersey Supreme Court decision of Heavner v. Uniroyal, 63 N.J. 130, 156 (1973), which explained that “the applicable statute of limitations is governed by the gravamen of the injury rather than the strict wording of the pleading.”
The plaintiff then appealed to the New Jersey Appellate Division, which affirmed the Superior Court’s dismissal of the case. The plaintiff’s attempt to mask a personal injury claim as a breach of contract claim failed, as the gravamen of the plaintiff’s breach of express warranty claims asserted a cause of action for personal injury. As such, the plaintiff needed to comply with the two-year statute of limitations.