Michael Donio almost had his former judicial roommate talked into retirement.
But Judge Carol Higbee wouldn't get the chance.
The Atlantic County judge whose ruling during one trial once sent stock for pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. plummeting died Tuesday. She was in her 60s.
Higbee was likely the longest-serving judge in Atlantic County when she died, said Donio, who is retired from the criminal court bench.
The Temple University graduate was appointed to the bench in 1993, by then-Gov. James Florio.
For 21 years, she worked out of the Atlantic County Civil Courthouse in Atlantic City until she was moved to the Appellate Division in 2014.
Even before taking the bench, Higbee was in civil law, specializing in medical malpractice, product liability and personal injury cases.
She loved the law, she told New Jersey Lawyer Magazine in August 2011.
"The courtroom is a combination of theater and war, and I find the combination interesting," she said. "It’s much easier to observe cases as a judge and to rule on things than it is to actually be a combatant or a player down there
on the stage. It’s an easier job than being a trial lawyer, but you’re still part of the whole mix of drama and excitement in a trial."
And she was good at what she loved, said longtime friend Donio.
"She was plenty smart," he said. "She was firm when she had to be firm. She was compassionate and, above all else, she was fair and wanted to get the right result. For a judge, you can't ask for more."
Working mass torts, which are cases when one person, company or group of defendants are sued by numerous plaintiffs for alleged negligence that caused injury to many victims.
She garnered national attention overseeing more than 3,000 Vioxx-related suits filed in Atlantic County Superior Court. The anti-inflammatory drug was linked to heart attacks, according to the allegations.
A 2005 New York Times article put the "hard to excite" and "easygoing" judge "in the center of the Vioxx storm."
Merck voluntarily took Vioxx off the market and eventually made a multi-billion dollar nationwide settlement in 2007.
For every case, Higbee would pore over documents, putting in many after-court hours, Donio said.
"Of course, 90 percent of the work is research and preparation whether you’re the judge or the lawyer," she told the New Jersey Lawyer Magazine. "There’s a lot ofpreparation for those few minutes of drama, but I enjoy it a
lot and I think the other mass tort judges in New Jersey pretty much feel the same way."
Higbee was happily married to Scott Higbee, a teacher at Holy Spirit High School. The couple had a son and daughter and had been raising their son's teenage daughter as their own since her birth.
A few months ago, Higbee's daughter made her a grandmother again, Donio said.
"The only thing she loved more than getting to the right result on the law was the love she had for her family, especially her grandkids," Donkio said.
Higbee also had a heart issue in the past months, sparking her good friend to push her to retire.
"I think I finally convinced her," Donio said.
"I'm going to get out," she told him. "Maybe I'll finish this term and get out next summer."
