Miller v. McClure

742 A.2d 564, 326 N.J. Super. 558
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedMay 27, 1998
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 742 A.2d 564 (Miller v. McClure) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Miller v. McClure, 742 A.2d 564, 326 N.J. Super. 558 (N.J. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

742 A.2d 564 (1998)
326 N.J. Super. 558

Suzanne MILLER, Plaintiff,
v.
John McCLURE, individually and as a Supervising Employee of Artex Knitting Mills, Inc. ("Artex"), Defendant-Appellant, and
Artex; Arthur Pottash, individually and in his capacity as an officer, shareholder, director and manager of Artex and in his capacity as the Supervisor of the Plaintiff and McClure; and Bernard Gerbarg, individually and in his capacity as an officer, shareholder director and manager of Artex and in his capacity as the Supervisor of Plaintiff and McClure, Defendants, and
John McClure, Defendant/Third-Party Plaintiff,
v.
Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company,[1] New Jersey Re-Insurance Company and Huron Insurance Comany, Third-Party Defendants/Respondents.

Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.

Argued telephonically December 18, 1997.[2]
Decided May 27, 1998.

*566 Kimberly D. Sutton, Haddonfield, for appellant, defendant third-party plaintiff (Obermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell & Hippel, attorneys; Ms. Sutton, on the brief).

Wendy Mager, Princeton, for respondent, third-party defendant Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company (Smith, Stratton, Wise, Heher & Brennan, attorneys; Ms. Mager, of counsel; Ms. Mager and Susan L. Olgiati, on the brief).

Robert M. Smolen, Mount Laurel, for respondent, third-party defendant Huron Insurance Company (Swartz, Campbell & Detweiler, attorneys; William T. Salzer, of counsel; Mr. Smolen, on the brief).

John Coyne, Morristown, for respondent third-party defendant New Jersey Re-Insurance Company (McElroy, Deutsch & Mulvaney, attorneys; Mr. Coyne, on the brief).

Before Judges D'ANNUNZIO and COBURN.

*565 PER CURIAM.

In this employment discrimination suit, based on alleged sexual harassment, defendant third-party plaintiff, John McClure, appeals, pursuant to leave granted, from interlocutory orders determining that there is no coverage for him under certain insurance policies issued by the third-party defendants. The insurance policies are a homeowners policy issued by Huron Insurance Company (Huron) to McClure; a comprehensive general liability policy issued by Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company (Atlantic) to his employer Artex Knitting Mills, Inc. (Artex); and a workers' compensation/employers' liability policy issued by New Jersey Re-Insurance Company (New Jersey) to Artex.

Suzanne Miller is the plaintiff in the underlying action. She filed a thirteen count complaint against McClure, Artex, and others. She seeks relief against McClure in the first eight counts and also in the thirteenth count. The thirteenth count, however, merely incorporates by reference all the allegations in the first twelve counts and seeks relief against all defendants.

Miller alleges that she was a factory worker employed by Artex beginning in July 1994 and McClure was her immediate supervisor. The core of Miller's allegations are contained in the first count of her complaint. We now reproduce certain paragraphs of the first count:

9. Over the course of several months, while employed by Defendant Artex, Plaintiff was repeatedly subjected to unwelcomed sexual remarks, lewd behavior, sexual innuendos, requests for sex, including requests stated in the most crude and graphic terms, and unwelcomed touching of a sexual nature by the Defendant McClure.

10. Defendant McClure repeatedly made crude sexual comments to Plaintiff, including, but not limited to, remarking that Plaintiff had: "bedroom eyes","a sister's ass" and a "nice set of tits".

11. Defendant McClure would repeatedly stare at Plaintiff's body parts, including her breasts, buttocks and crotch, in a sexual manner and say such things as, "I want to eat your pussy."

12. Defendant McClure repeatedly made comments to Plaintiff concerning the size of his penis, often times while grabbing his crotch.. . . . . 15. While they were both working, Defendant McClure repeatedly and regularly, *567 made unwelcomed sexual advances towards Plaintiff.

16. While they were both working, Defendant McClure continually groped and grabbed for many of the Plaintiff's body parts, without her permission and in opposition to Plaintiff's implicit and explicit objections, succeeding on many occasions. Specifically, some of these incidents include, but are not limited to, Defendant McClure grabbing Plaintiff between the legs, at the crotch, biting her buttocks, grabbing and slapping her buttocks and grabbing her breasts.

17. Defendant McClure repeatedly and regularly exposed himself, specifically by exposing his genitalia to Plaintiff, and propositioned Plaintiff.. . . . .

23. From the beginning of Plaintiff's employment, Defendant McClure attempted to, and did, use his position, power, influence and control, as her immediate Supervisor to harass and discriminate against Plaintiff. For example, Defendant McClure told Plaintiff that he had told Arthur Pottash, an "owner" of the Defendant Artex, to hire Plaintiff after McClure had seen her in the waiting room. Defendant McClure told Plaintiff that he had wanted her to be hired because she was young and pretty.

24. Unbeknownst to Plaintiff at the time, Defendant McClure directed Defendant Artex to hire Plaintiff as a "toy" for McClure's sexual amusement.

25. Defendant McClure was not just Plaintiff's supervisor, he was the management representative with the most authority and power at Artex after Artex's "owners", Arthur Pottash and Bernard Gerbarg.. . . . . . 43. Plaintiff was constantly in fear of losing her job, which she very much needed, as a result of her not complying with or responding to the sexual remarks, demands, innuendos, requests for sex and unwelcomed touching of a sexual nature, which she suffered at the hands of Defendant McClure.

44. As a result of the aforesaid actions of the Defendants, Plaintiff has suffered and will continue to suffer severe emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, fear and intimidation, stomach problems and headaches.

45. Said actions by Defendant McClure to extort sexual favors from Plaintiff constitute a "quid pro quo" sexual determination and harassment.

46. Said actions by Defendant McClure were performed under color of his authority as a supervising employee of Defendant Artex and, therefore, constitute the actions of Defendant Artex.

The principles of law governing the interpretation of liability coverage are well established and we summarized them in Sinopoli v.. North River Ins. Co., 244 N.J.Super. 245, 581 A.2d 1368 (App.Div. 1990), certif. denied, 127 N.J. 325, 604 A.2d 600 (1991):

Our function when construing a policy of insurance, as with any other contract, is to search broadly for the probable intent of the parties in an effort to find a reasonable meaning in keeping with the express general purposes of the policy. Fidelity Union Trust Co. v. Robert, 36 N.J. 561, 567, 178 A.2d 185 (1962); Tooker v. Hartford Acc. and Indemn. Co., 128 N.J.Super. 217, 222-223, 319 A.2d 743 (App.Div.1974). However, the language of liability insurance policies should be construed liberally in favor of the insured and strictly against the insurer, Sandler v. N.J. Realty Title Ins. Co., 36 N.J. 471, 479, 178 A.2d 1 (1962); accord Keown v. West Jersey Title and Guaranty Co., 161 N.J.Super. 19, 27, 390 A.2d 715 (App.Div.1978), certif. den., 78 N.J. 405, 396 A.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
742 A.2d 564, 326 N.J. Super. 558, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-v-mcclure-njsuperctappdiv-1998.