Deborah F. Townsend

Summary

The Supreme Court of New Jersey held that the trial court properly struck plaintiffs' engineering expert's causation opinion as a net opinion because it was unsupported by, and directly contradicted, the uncontroverted testimony of the driver and her passenger that the driver's view of oncoming traffic was unobstructed when she turned left. The Court further held that a hypothetical question asking an expert to assume that uncontroverted testimony is mistaken cannot supply the factual foundation required by N.J.R.E. 705. With no evidence remaining to support the proximate-cause element, the Court upheld summary judgment dismissing the wrongful death and survival claims against the property owner and lessee, reversing the Appellate Division. The expert's opinions on the defendants' duty of care, by contrast, were adequately substantiated and admissible.