Attorneys confirm a judge's Friday pretrial decision.
NEWARK -- A judge has ruled that the widow of a New Jersey lawyer killed during a 2013 carjacking in a parking garage at the Mall at Short Hills can seek damages from the emotional distress of witnessing her husband's death, according to the woman's lawyer.
Bruce Nagel, an attorney representing Jamie Schare Friedland in lawsuits against the mall's owners, Taubman Centers, Inc., and Universal Protection Service, the company that provides security at the facility, said Friday that Superior Court Judge James S. Rothschild, Jr. denied the defendants' motion to dismiss the widow's claim to emotional stress damages.
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The pretrial decision will allow Friedland to seek an undisclosed sum for emotional stress in a pair of suits that claims that the mall and security company could have taken precautions that may have prevented Dustin Friedland's shooting death.
An attorney for UPS did not respond to a request for comment on the decision. An attorney for Taubman declined to comment.
In a hearing over the summer, mall attorney Stanley Fishman argued that the killing was a "random act of violence," and that the upscale shopping center could not have prevented it.
Nagel called the judge's Friday decision "well-reasoned. It is a significant blow to the mall's attempt to avoid responsibility in this case," he said.
Friedland's suits are separate from the criminal trials pending for four men charged in the shooting. Basim Henry, 34, of South Orange, Hanif Thompson, 30, of Irvington, and Karif Ford, 33, and Kevin Roberts, 37, both of Newark, are facing murder, felony murder, carjacking and weapons charges in connection with the murder. All four have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessMazzola. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
