On Nov. 16, 2023, the New Jersey Superior Court held that a complaint will not relate back where plaintiff failed to perform diligent inquiry prior to naming a fictitious defendant. Baez Zucco v. Walgreen, No. A-1709-21, N. J. Super. (App. Div. 2023).

On May 23, 2018, plaintiff tripped and fell in defendant’s parking lot on 20 Arnot Street, Lodi, New Jersey, owned by defendant Walgreen Eastern. One month later plaintiff and plaintiff’s engineering expert, Kelly-Ann Kimiecik, visited the scene of plaintiff’s fall. During Kimiecik’s site inspection, she met Tracie Nunno-D’Amico. Although Kimiecik “did not indicate the specific location of plaintiff’s incident,” Nunno-D’Amico informed Kimiecik that Nunno-D’Amico’s family owned property in the area. Kimiecik immediately forwarded this information to plaintiff’s attorney. In her July 7, 2018 report, Kimiecik opined that plaintiff’s fall was due to a depression in the parking lot “caused by water surface runoff from the adjacent building’s downspout coupled with poorly compacted subgrade and freeze thaw cycles which caused the pavement to crack.” The adjacent building, 2 Mercer Street, is owned by Mercer Street LLC the principals of which are William and Kathy Nunno (Nunno-D’Amico’s parents).