Abbamont v. Piscataway Township Board of Education

746 A.2d 997, 163 N.J. 14, 1999 N.J. LEXIS 1644

• Court: Supreme Court of New Jersey
• Decided: December 16, 1999
• Status: Published

Opinions

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 whether a public entity may be liable under CEPA for punitive damages.