Appellate Court Rules On Longstanding Court Fight Between Nutley Residents

A personal injury legal battle between two Nutley residents may have finally come to an end more than six years after the inciting incident.

On July 23, a NJ Appellate Court upheld an earlier ruling against Richard Goldrick, who had alleged that Nancy Centanni struck him with her car and caused him serious knee damage in May of 2009.

According to court records, Goldrick and Centanni were neighbors on the same Nutley street at the time.

Goldrick testified that he pulled out of his driveway and made a left turn onto the street, when he heard a car horn. After stopping and exiting the vehicle to see what happened, Centanni allegedly began to shout obscenities at him and accuse him of cutting her off.

According to Goldrick, Centanni then moved her car forward, hitting his right knee with her front bumper and running over his left foot. After he screamed, Centanni allegedly moved forward off of Goldrick’s foot, at which point he fell to the ground.

Goldrick testified that Centanni’s son then exited her vehicle and helped him back to his car.

However, Centanni offered a different version of events, testifying that as she was driving down the street, Goldrick cut her off and stopped abruptly next to her vehicle.

Although Centanni admitted making an “inappropriate gesture” at Goldrick, she denied ever touching him with any part of her car and maintained that he had approached her bumper and “inexplicably fell to the ground” after they exchanged words.

Following the incident, Goldrick allegedly began experiencing knee pain and ended up getting surgery for a torn meniscus.

He subsequently filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against Centanni.

During the trial, the judge agreed to strike the opinion of Goldrick’s medical expert because there was “absolutely no factual basis for the expert’s opinion about what caused this injury.”