Eleanor Ostrowski, Plaintiff-Appellant v. Lynn M. Azzara, D.P.M., Defendant-Respondent

Summary

The Supreme Court of New Jersey reversed the Appellate Division and remanded for a new trial because the jury instructions improperly combined comparative negligence with avoidable consequences and failed to separate pre‑treatment health habits from post‑treatment fault, thereby allowing comparative negligence to act as a complete defense. The Court held that pre‑treatment habits are not comparative fault that can bar recovery and that the physician’s negligent toenail removal was a proximate cause of the plaintiff’s need for bypass surgery.