Bolinger v. Bell Atl

In Bolinger v. Bell Atl., 330 N.J. Super. 300, 306, 749 A.2d 857 (App.Div.), certif. denied, 165 N.J. 491, 58 A.2d 650 (2000) where a telephone company splicer was injured on the job, placed on disability at half-pay for seven years and told that he would be put on pension at half-pay when he turned sixty-two, and then returned to work as a repair service clerk, the court held that the plaintiff's removal from full-time status and placement on disability was a "discrete, permanent event that placed him on notice that his rights were being violated and triggered his duty to take legal action to recoup those rights." 330 N.J. Super. at 309, 749 A.2d 857. The court noted that the plaintiff's claim did not arise as the result of "continuously inflicted, albeit discrete and individual injuries that, taken together, comprised a single tortious act." Ibid. Rather, he had an actionable claim as soon as he was removed from his duties and placed on half-pay status; "at that point, he experienced the full impact of his injury, although the amount of his actual damages may have continued to accrue the longer he remained on disability status." Ibid.