## Facts

- Jean Marie Cusseaux alleged Wilson Pickett, Jr. subjected her to a continuous pattern of domestic violence during a roughly ten-year cohabiting relationship (1982–1992).
- She alleged repeated physical assaults, often associated with defendant’s intoxication, causing multiple physical injuries and emotional harm.
- She identified several alleged fist assaults (including dates in 1986, 1990, and 1992), including an incident resulting in a broken nose and multiple emergency-room visits.
- She also alleged defendant threw objects at her on multiple occasions, including a heavy kitchen pot, a large dish, and a container of bleach.
- She alleged that the cumulative abuse caused her to suffer battered-woman’s syndrome, including serious personal and emotional injuries requiring medical and other treatment.
- She alleged a final assault in April 1992 led her to end the relationship.
- Defendant denied the abuse allegations.

## Issues

1. Whether New Jersey law recognizes battered-woman’s syndrome as an affirmative, cognizable civil cause of action based on a continuous course of domestic violence.
2. Whether the complaint’s allegations satisfied New Jersey notice pleading and stated a claim sufficient to survive dismissal under Rule 4:6-2(e).

## Decision

- The court denied defendant’s Rule 4:6-2(e) motion to dismiss the first count.
- The court held battered-woman’s syndrome could be pleaded as a cognizable cause of action under New Jersey law.
- The court concluded the complaint’s allegations of repeated assaults, injury, medical treatment, and resulting emotional harm adequately stated a claim and provided fair notice.

## Legal Principles

- On a Rule 4:6-2(e) motion, a court accepts the pleaded facts as true, reads the complaint indulgently, and dismisses only if the claim is clearly unsustainable on any set of facts consistent with the allegations.
- Under Rule 4:5-2, pleadings must state facts showing entitlement to relief and must fairly apprise the opposing party of the claims and issues.
- A civil claim alleging a continuous course of domestic violence causing battered-woman’s syndrome may proceed where the syndrome is pleaded as a compensable condition involving physical and emotional injury, consistent with traditional tort recovery principles.
- Prior judicial recognition of battered-woman’s syndrome as a legitimate condition in related legal contexts supported treating resulting psychological harm as legally cognizable in civil litigation.

## Conclusion

The court refused to dismiss a claim alleging that prolonged domestic abuse caused battered-woman’s syndrome, holding that the syndrome may be pleaded as a cognizable civil claim in New Jersey and that the complaint’s detailed allegations met the state’s liberal notice-pleading standard.


Cusseaux v. Pickett, 652 A.2d 789 (N.J. Super. Ct. Law Div. 1994)