The Appellate Division affirmed the trial court in ‘Cucciniello v. The Sports Authority.’ Greg Lois wrote the Appellate Brief.
The Appellate Court found that a subsequent aggravating incident was not a “new injury” sufficient to break the chain of causation. This unpublished decision departs from the prior case law and basically holds that a superseding, new incident will not break the causal chains unless a doctor directly told the claimant not to engage in a specific activity.
Adjusters and risk managers are warned NOT to apply the reasoning of the Appellate Panel in reviewing specific cases; the poor reasoning employed by the Appellate courts basically serves to annihilate the ‘superceding/intervening’ defense which is one of the most well-settled tenets of western law/civil law.
Citation: Cucciniello v. The Sports Authority, App. Div. A-1235-07T3 (Decided September 24, 2008).
