We held that the trial court was mistaken when it
determined as a matter of law that defendants were liable in
damages to plaintiff, Francis DeHerde, on his claim for service
as the de facto Supervisor of the East Orange Police's Traffic
Unit, because the proofs conflicted as to whether he held that
office on a de facto basis. We thus remanded the matter for
retrial utilizing the standards expressed in Jersey City v.
Dept. of Civil Service, 57 N.J. Super. 13, 27 (App. Div. 1959).
We rejected the defendants' argument that DeHerde's damages
should be limited to back pay, determining that if past and
future pension benefits were found to be owing on retrial, the
defendants, not the Division of Pensions, would be responsible
for payment.
Plaintiff, Sanford Thigpen, another East Orange Police
Officer, sought economic and non-economic damages for malicious
prosecution pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2A:47A-1 and non-economic
damages for invasion of privacy. We affirmed the trial court's
determination that the claims were subject to the Tort Claims
Act's injury threshold. Since that threshold was not met,
Thigpen was entitled only to economic damages for malicious
prosecution. We affirmed the dismissal of his non-economic
damage claims based on malicious prosecution and invasion of
privacy.
Chase Smith assistant editor
