The New Jersey Supreme Court will hear the appeal of a medical malpractice plaintiff who took the rare step of seeking counsel fees under the offer-of-judgment rule but failed to recover those fees because an appeals court ruled that the settlement agreement did not address the issue.

The court announced it would hear the case, Serico v. Rothberg, on Monday.

In February, an appeals court refused to award the plaintiffs the counsel fees because of the failure to address the issue at settlement.