Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

29 N.J. 436

149 A.2d 212

Genovay v. Fox

Supreme Court of New Jersey

Decided March 17, 1959

Supreme Court of New Jersey · decided 1959-03-17

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“whether the evidence and the inferences therefrom are susceptible of the conclusion that during the holdup defendant engaged in a course of conduct designed to incite or suggest resistance to, or attack upon, the armed bandit by his business invitees, one of whom was the plaintiff.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 317 N.J. Super. 237 - Saltsman v. Corazo

“[s]ince the parties agree that [the issue as phrased by them] expresses the controlling test to be applied in situations such as the present one we accept it for the disposition of this case.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 317 N.J. Super. 237 - Saltsman v. Corazo

Relies on 50 N.J. Super. 538 - Genovay v. Fox

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1959-03-17

How this case has been cited

Cited by 38 later decisions — most recently December 1998 · most notably Goldberg v. Housing Auth. of City of Newark (1962), Butler v. Acme Markets, Inc. (1982)

38 state decisions

15019591960197019801990decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Pee Cxjeiam.

¶1 In this rather unusual case the Appellate Division held that the issue of defendant’s negligence should have been submitted to the jury for determination. Consequently, it reversed the action of the trial court in granting the motion for judgment for the defendant after all of the evidence had been submitted. 50 N. J. Super. 538 (App. Div. 1958). We granted certification.

¶2 At the oral argument the parties were in agreement that the legal question to be decided is whether the evidence and the inferences therefrom are susceptible of the conclusion *438 that during the holdup defendant engaged in a course of conduct designed to incite or suggest resistance to, or attack upon, the armed bandit by his business invitees, one of whom was the plaintiff. Since the parties agree that it expresses the controlling test to be applied in situations such as the present one we accept it for the disposition of this case.

¶3 Resolution of the question, however, depends upon the facts adduced at the trial. That proof has been detailed in the opinion under review and need not be restated here. Careful analysis thereof has led us to the conclusion that no basis existed for submitting the posed inquiry to the jury for determination. To do so would be to permit the claim to be decided upon pure speculation and conjecture as to the import of defendant’s actions during the progress of the attempted robbery. Under the circumstances, the judgment appealed from is reversed and that of the trial court is reinstated.

¶4 For reversal—Chief Justice Weintraub, and Justices Heher, Burling, Jacobs, Francis and Proctor—6.

¶5 For affirmance—None.

/29/nj/436 · .json · Public domain