John William Myers v. Gny Mutual Insurance Company

New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division·Decided August 11, 2025·No. A-0640-23·Unpublished

Opinion

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION This opinion shall not "constitute precedent or be binding upon any court ." Although it is posted on the internet, this opinion is binding only on the parties in the case and its use in other cases is limited. R. 1:36-3.

SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY APPELLATE DIVISION

DOCKET NO. A-0640-23

JOHN WILLIAM MYERS, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.

GNY MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY and NJM INSURANCE COMPANY,

Defendants-Respondents.

Argued January 21, 2025 – Decided August 11, 2025 Before Judges Gummer, Jacobs, and Jablonski.

On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Somerset County, Docket No. L-1444-22.

John William Myers, appellant, argued the cause pro se.

Catherine P. O'Hern argued the cause for respondent GNY Mutual Insurance Company (Schenck, Price, Smith & King, LLP, attorneys; Michael J. Marotte, of counsel; Catherine P. O'Hern, on the brief).

Daniel J. Pomeroy argued the cause for respondent NJM Insurance Company (Pomeroy, Heller, Ley,

DiGasbarro & Noonan, LLC, attorneys; Daniel J.

Pomeroy and Karen E. Heller, on the brief).

PER CURIAM In this insurance-coverage case, plaintiff John W. Myers appeals an order dismissing his complaint with prejudice against defendant NJM Insurance Company (NJM) and an order denying his motion to reconsider orders dismissing defendant NJM and defendant GNY Mutual Insurance Company (GNY). Based on our de novo review of the dismissal order and perceiving no abuse of discretion in the denial of the reconsideration motion, we affirm.

I.

On December 9, 2022, plaintiff filed in the Law Division a 332-paragraph verified complaint, naming GNY and NJM as defendants. He referenced but did not name as a defendant Society Hill at Bernards 1 Condominium Association, Inc. (the Association). He described the Association as "a non-profit corporation whose members are the owners of 444 units in a planned community with common areas and recreational facilities . . . ." According to plaintiff, he and his wife purchased in 2013 a townhouse that was part of the Association. He described GNY as "the insurance carrier for the Association's Commercial General Liability (CGL) policy which was endorsed to insure members including [plaintiff]." He described NJM as "the insurance carrier for A-0640-23

[plaintiff's] HO6 Condo Owners Insurance Policy effective since 4/26/2013." He asserted both policies were "All Risks" policies. He claimed defendants had wrongfully denied his "claims for legal defense, indemnification, and reimbursement stemming from multiple municipal court trials and events related to [Stoneley v. Myers,] Docket No. SOM-L-1520-16 [(the Underlying Lawsuit)]." In the six-count complaint, plaintiff asserted causes of action for a declaratory judgment regarding various aspects of defendants' policies and his alleged entitlement to coverage under them, breach of contract, and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. In addition to the declaratory judgments, plaintiff sought monetary damages, including punitive damages.

Plaintiff submitted with his complaint a certification he expressly "incorporated" into the complaint. He made in the complaint and certification extensive factual assertions regarding the parties, the Association, the policies, members of the Association's Board of Trustees, the Association's property manager, the Underlying Lawsuit, and certain municipal-court complaints filed against plaintiff. He attached to the complaint and the incorporated certification several exhibits, including copies of the NJM policy, the complaint in the

A-0640-23

Underlying Lawsuit, and certifications submitted in connection with the Underlying Lawsuit.

The plaintiffs in the Underlying Lawsuit were Association Board members Bruce Stoneley, Hilary Carmen, Valerie Whyte, and Nannette Carriere; the Association; Taylor Management Company (TMC), which was the managing agent for the Association, and Terri L. Reddell, who was a TMC employee serving as the Association's site manager. Those plaintiffs commenced the Underlying Lawsuit by filing on December 2, 2016, a verified complaint and an application for an order to show cause with civil restraints. They named plaintiff as the sole defendant in that case. They alleged he had intimidated one plaintiff by leaning over her desk in a threatening manner, blocking her exit, and refusing to leave until she told him multiple times she would call the police; intimidating a Board member by "getting in his face and pinning him against a truck while screaming vile and personal insults at him"; disrupting the Annual Meeting of the members, resulting in defendant's subsequent arrest; and otherwise threatening, insulting, cursing, and screaming at the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs in the Underlying Lawsuit pleaded three causes of action.

In the first count, which was entitled INTENTIONAL INTERFERENCE WITH

A-0640-23

CONTRACTUAL RELATIONS, the plaintiffs alleged plaintiff had "wantonly, willfully and intentionally disrupted the ongoing contractual relations hips between" Reddell and TMC, TMC and the Association, and the Association and its membership. In the second and third counts, they alleged plaintiff had assaulted and harassed the individual plaintiffs. In addition to monetary damages, the plaintiffs sought an injunction prohibiting plaintiff from contacting Board members, contacting TMC members except in case of an emergency, and requiring him contact the Association's counsel to address housing and maintenance issues. On January 20, 2017, plaintiff filed an answer with a counterclaim.

Plaintiff alleged in the complaint in this case that on December 6, 2018, he had "notified NJM of [his] claim over the phone regarding" the NJM policy. The NJM policy that was in effect on the dates at issue in the Underlying Lawsuit provided "Unit-Owners Coverage," which included coverage for certain risks to the covered property, the personal possessions of the policyholders, and loss of use as well as personal liability in the amount of $100,000 for "[e]ach [o]ccurence." Section I of the policy described what coverage the policy provided "for direct physical loss to the [insured] property"; section II described

A-0640-23

the "liability coverages" under the policy. Section II, subsection A, which was entitled "Coverage E – Personal Liability," provided:

If a claim is made or a suit is brought against an insured for damages because of bodily injury or property damage caused by an occurrence to which this coverage applies, [NJM] will:

1. Pay up to [its] limit of liability for damages for which an insured is legally liable; and

2. Provide a defense at [its] expense by counsel of [its]

choice, even if the suit is groundless, false or fraudulent. . . .

The NJM policy defined "[o]ccurrence" as "an accident, including continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same general harmful conditions , which results, during the policy period, in: a. [b]odily injury or b. [p]roperty damage." The policy defined "[b]odily injury" as "bodily harm, sickness or disease, including required care, loss of services and death that results." It defined "[p]roperty damage" as "physical injury to, destruction of, or loss of use of tangible property."

Section II of the NJM policy also described specific exclusions from coverage. Section II, Exclusion E, paragraph 1, which was entitled "Expected Or Intended Injury," provided that Coverage E did not apply to:

A-0640-23

Bodily injury or property damage, with respect to all insureds, which is expected or intended by an insured even if the bodily injury or property damage:

a. Is of a different kind, quality or degree than initially expected or intended; or

b. Is sustained by a different person, entity, real or personal property than initially expected or intended.

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