In a Decision – S.B. v. L.M. . (an "Unreported Decision") >> the Court Held:
The Appellate Division held, that the trial court erred in concluding defendant committed a predicate act of harassment. Plaintiff failed to testify as to what defendant stated and to whom actions were directed.
It is impossible to evaluate defendant's speech and conduct by words neither detailed nor described. Without knowing the specific words defendant used and the context in which she used those words when yelling and cursing, it cannot be ascertained if those words were uttered with the purpose to harass plaintiff.
The parties' complaints arose from an incident in which defendant was approached at home by a caseworker from the Division of Child Protection and Permanency; defendant believed plaintiff had made a false allegation against her. At that same time, plaintiff arrived to drop off the parties' children for defendant's parenting time. Defendant alleged that, in their children's presence, plaintiff made false and defamatory allegations against defendant to the division caseworker. In contrast, plaintiff alleged that defendant attempted to physically pull the children from plaintiff's vehicle and was verbally abusive toward plaintiff and plaintiff's mother; plaintiff conceded that he cursed at defendant once and called her a "deadbeat mother". The caseworker also testified that defendant attempted to remove the children from plaintiff's vehicle and yelled and cursed at plaintiff.