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

Supreme Court Will Review Tumpson v. Farina

The Supreme Court has granted certification to review the decision of the Appellate Division in Tumpson v. Farina, 431 N.J. Super. 164 (App. Div. 2013). The decision below is discussed here. The...

Class Ascertainability- The Third Circuit Approaches the Precipice

Carrera v. Bayer Corp., 727 F.3d 300 (3d Cir. 2013). In Marcus v. BMW of North America, Inc., 687 F.3d 583 (3d Cir. 2012), the Third Circuit embarked on a very dangerous path...

Marcus v. BMW Reiterated

Hayes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 725 F.3d 349 (3d Cir. 2013). In this consumer class action, the Third Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Scirica, vacated class certification. That decision rested largely...

Supreme Court Says TCCWNA Gives Broad Protections to Consumers

Shelton v. Restaurant.com, Inc., 214 N.J. 419 (2013). [Disclosure: I argued this case in the Supreme Court for the successful plaintiffs]. This consumer protection case has had a long odyssey. Originally filed...

The Supreme Court Upholds Class Arbitration in Oxford v. Sutter

Oxford Health Plans LLC v. Sutter, 133 S.Ct. 2064 (2013). In Sutter v. Oxford Health Plans, LLC, 675 F.3d 215 (3d Cir. 2012), discussed here, the Third Circuit upheld an arbitrator's interpretation...

Judicial Sarcasm and Rule 68

Genesis Healthcare Corp. v. Symczyk, 133 S.Ct. 1523 (2013). Of all the current sitting Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Scalia is the one who would normally...

Improvident Grants of Certiorari (or Certification)

Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, 133 S.Ct. 1426 (2013). In this antitrust class action case, the Supreme Court of the United States split 5-4, among all too predictable lines. The majority, in a...

Stipulation by Named Plaintiff Limiting Damages to Under $5 Million in Order to Keep Class Action in State Court Does Not Block Defendant From Removing to Federal Court

Standard Fire Ins. Co. v. Knowles, 133 S.Ct. 1345 (2013). Class action plaintiffs often prefer, for strategic or tactical reasons, to bring their cases in state courts, while class action defendants normally...

A Class Action Plaintiff Must be a Member of the Class That He or She Seeks to Represent

Rosen v. Continental Airlines, Inc., 430 N.J. Super. 97 (App. Div. 2013). The holding of this decision affirmed a defense motion to dismiss this putative class action case for failure to state a claim. Plaintiff had...

More About Waiver

In re Diet Drugs, 706 F.3d 217 (3d Cir. 2013). This is the latest of the many chapters in the Diet Drugs class action litigation, which was the subject of a global...

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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....