NJ Appellate Law Blog – NJ Appellate Lawyer Bruce D. Greenberg blogs about Appeals and Appellate Law Practice

New Jersey Appellate Law Blog's Second Anniversary

Today is the second anniversary of New Jersey Appellate Law blog. The past year has been a busy one. The 225 posts since last October 18 have commented on events ranging from...

The Supreme Court of New Jersey Takes Up an Arbitration Case

The Supreme Court of the United States has been very active in granting review of cases seeking to compel arbitration in various contexts. Now, the Supreme Court of New Jersey...

The Supreme Court Goes Mobile

The Supreme Court of New Jersey announced yesterday that webcasts of archived Supreme Court oral arguments can now be viewed in an MP4 format, on notepads, smart phones, or other...

Tea Party Challenge to District Map Fails

Gonzalez v. State of New Jersey Apportionment Comm'n, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2012). The Tea Party has had little electoral success in New Jersey. Its efforts to achieve...

Ten Years Since Lonegan I

On this date in 2002, the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided Lonegan v. State, 174 N.J. 435 (2002). There, plaintiffs mounted a challenge to numerous types of state "contract debt"...

Shelton v. Restaurant.com to be Re-Argued in the Supreme Court of New Jersey

In Shelton v. Restaurant.com, Inc., the Supreme Court of New Jersey took the relatively rare step of accepting questions certified to it by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. That...

Sales Taxes Under the Bankruptcy Code: A Fascinating, and Difficult, Issue of Statutory Interpretation

In re Michael Calabrese, Jr., 689 F.3d 312 (3d Cir. 2012). Most issues of statutory interpretation can be resolved either by the plain language of the statute, by an analysis of...

Wrongful Death Act Claim for Estate Tax Impact of Premature Death May Go Forward

Beim v. Hulfish, 427 N.J. Super. 560 (App. Div. 2012). The first paragraph of this very interesting opinion by Judge Harris, in an auto accident case, well encapsulates the novel issue presented:...

Cap on Sick Leave Payments to School Administrators Upheld

New Jersey Ass'n of School Adminstrators v. Schundler, 211 N.J. 535 (2012). This case required the Supreme Court to parse and reconcile an unusually complex scheme of statutes and regulations that dealt...

An Anniversary in the Law of Fiduciary Duties Between Business Partners

On this date in 1955, the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided Stark v. Reingold, 18 N.J. 251 (1955). The case involved charges and counter-charges of wrongful conduct by partners...

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"Hot Fun in the Summertime": Appellate Division Summer Parts

In an Order available here, Chief Justice Rabner announced the lineup for the Appellate Division's summer Parts. As has been customary, the "summer" runs not between the meteorological start and end dates for summer, nor from Memorial Day to Labor Day, but from June 16 through September 7....

The Supreme Court Confirms That Municipalities Can be Subjected to Sanctions for Frivolous Litigation

Borough of Englewood Cliffs v. Trautner, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). This appeal presented the question of whether municipalities can be liable to pay sanctions for frivolous litigation, under the Frivolous Litigation Statute, N.J.S.A. 2A:15-59.1 ("the FLS"). In a 5-0 opinion written by Justice Fasciale (Chief Justice Rabner and Justice Hoffman did not participate), the Court affirmed, as modified, the decision of the Appellate Division that upheld the Law Division's imposition of FLS sanctions against the Borough....

The "Castle Doctrine"

State v. Bragg, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). A jury found defendant guilty of twelve charged counts, including attempted murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, endangering, and two lesser-included offenses of harassment. Some of those charges involved the use of deadly force. Persons may not use deadly force if the can retreat with complete safety. But under the "castle doctrine," an exception to the general rule, a person "is not obliged to retreat from his dwelling, unless he was the initial aggressor." N.J.S.A. 2C:3-4(b)(2)(b)(i). That doctrine derives from the common law....

No Arbitrariness in Rejection of Public Construction Bid That Failed to Include a Properly Signed, Required Consent of Surety

In the Matter of Protest Filed by El Sol Contracting and Construction Corp., Contract T100.638, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). This public bidding case resulted in a 5-2 split at the Supreme Court, the first non-unanimous ruling of the current Term. Justice Hoffman wrote the majority opinion, while Justice Fasciale authored the dissent for himself and Justice Pierre-Louis....