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

Forfeiture of Entire Public Pension Due to Guilty Plea of Accepting $300 Bribe is Not an Unconstitutional "Excessive Fine"

State v. Anderson, 463 N.J. Super. 168 (App. Div. 2020). Defendant, formerly employed by the Jersey City Tax Assessor's office, pled guilty to a federal criminal charge of interference with...

Insureds Bear the Burden of Proving "Fortuity" of a Claimed Loss Under an All-Risk Insurance Policy

Chartis Property Casualty Co. v. Inganamort, 953 F.3d 231 (3d Cir. 2020). Yesterday, the Third Circuit issued its first published opinion in nearly two weeks. The ruling, authored by Judge...

Sanctions, Damages for a Removed "Bamboo Fence," and a 4-3 Supreme Court Vote

Kornbleuth v. Westover, 241 N.J. 289 (2020). The Supreme Court of the United States frequently seems to split 5-4. It is relatively rare for the Supreme court of New Jersey...

Breaking the Silence

February 26 was the most recent post on this blog. From then until today, I have had an Appellate Division oral argument, an oral argument on a dispositive motion in...

A 3-2 Supreme Court Decision About the "Deemer" Statute

Felix v. Richards, 241 N.J. 169 (2020). This ruling of the Supreme Court today saw only five Justices participating since Justices Patterson and Timpone were recused. The remaining five Justices...

Two Employment-Related Cases for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it will review two more cases. One of them is before the Court as of right, by virtue of a dissent in the Appellate Division....

A Golf Cart Injury Gets Sent to Trial

McKeown v. American Golf Club, 462 N.J. Super. 339 (App. Div. 2020). Plaintiff McKeown was playing golf with defendant Robinson and his son-in-law, defendant Capavanni, and a fourth golfer, at...

The Division of Taxation Wins in the Supreme Court on an Inheritance Tax Issue

Estate of Van Riper v. Director, Division of Taxation, 241 N.J. 115 (2020). The taxpayers in this case lost their argument, on summary judgment, before the Tax Court and then...

"Class of One" Equal Protection Claims by Public Employees Are Not Permitted

DiBuonaventura v. Washington Tp., 462 N.J. Super. 260 (App. Div. 2020). Plaintiff was a police officer in Washington Township, Gloucester County. He made several complaints about the conduct of the...

When Does a Dismissal Preclude a Second Case?

Papera v. Pennsylvania Quarried Bluestone Co., 948 F.3d 607 (3d Cir. 2020). Plaintiffs and defendants reached what was believed to be a settlement of their case. At plaintiffs' request, the...

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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....