Franklin Mutual Insurance v. Jersey Central Power & Light Co.

In Weinberg v. Dinger, 106 N.J. 469, 495, 524 A.2d 366 (1987), we held, in accordance with modern principles of tort liability, that a utility has a duty to act with reasonable care in the provision of service to foreseeable users, rejecting a line of cases that was based solely on the then-current tort law notion that a defendant owed no duty of care to a third party with whom no privity of contract existed. See, e.g., Reimann v. Monmouth Consol. Water Co., 9 N.J. 134, 137-38, 87 A.2d 325 (1952) (water company not liable to third parties for negligent provision of service); Cochran v. Public…