Cavuoti v. New Jersey Transit Corp.

The central issue in this employment discrimination case concerns when victims of workplace discrimination may recover punitive damages. Our decision in Lehmann v. Toys ‘R’ Us, Inc., 132 N.J. 587, 626 A.2d 445 (1993), “established two distinct condi tions that must be met as prerequisites to the award of punitive damages in a discrimination suit under the [the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination].” Rendine v. Pantzer, 141 N.J. 292, 313, 661 A.2d 1202 (1995). Those two requirements are (1) “actual participation in or willful indifference to the wrongful conduct on the part of upper…