8-4-08 (A-53-07)
When a public employee’s actions constitute willful misconduct, the plaintiff need not satisfy the verbal threshold of the New
Jersey Tort Claims Act and may instead recover the full measure of damages applicable to a person in the private sector. The
trial court’s failure to give that instruction to the jury was error. The failure to instruct the jury that the good faith defense incorporated into the Act does not apply to claims for false arrest or false imprisonment also was error and the error was clearly capable of producing an unjust result.
