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

Trial Courts Must be Proactive in Ensuring Compliance With Rules Regarding Dismissal With Prejudice for Failure to Make Discovery

A&M Farm & Garden Center v. American Sprinkler Mechanical, LLC, 423 N.J. Super. 528 (App. Div. 2012). No matter how often the courts inveigh against the failure of attorneys and parties to follow...

Supreme Court Will Review Mediation Settlement Case

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted certification in Willingboro Mall, Ltd. v. 240/242 Franklin Avenue, LLC, 421 N.J. Super. 445 (App. Div. 2011). The decision of the Appellate Division...

An Easy One for the Supreme Court: Plain Statutory Language Controls; Retroactivity Issue Deferred

Selective Ins. Co. v. Rothman, 208 N.J. 580 (2012). The issue in this case, which arose out of the plaintiff insurance company's denial of personal injury protection ("PIP") claims for payment of...

Repossession Company is Not "User by Permission" of Repossessed Automobile

Repossession Specialists v. Geico Ins. Co., 423 N.J. Super. 518 (App. Div. 2012). Annetta Jackson defaulted on her car loan, and Repossession Specialists ("Repossession") was sent to repossess the vehicle. After the...

Appeal from Law Division Decision That Was Not Final is Dismissed as Interlocutory

Johnson v. Downe Tp. Combined Planning/Zoning Bd., 2012 WL 33897 (App. Div. Jan. 9, 2012). How many times has the Appellate Division warned that a purported appeal as of right from...

A "Real Estate Manager," Yes, But Whose "Real Estate Manager"?

Cambria v. Two JFK Blvd, LLC, 423 N.J. Super. 499 (App. Div. 2012). Plaintiff was injured when he fell in the parking lot of a strip mall owned by defendant Two JFK...

Discovery Rule Does Not Toll the Time to File a Notice of Claim Against a Public Entity

McDade v. Siazon, 208 N.J. 463 (2011). Under the Tort Claims Act, N.J.S.A. 59:8-8(a), one who wishes to make a tort claim against a public entity must first file a notice of...

Supreme Court Will Review NAACP v. Foulke

The Supreme Court has granted a petition for certification to review the decision of the Appellate Division in NAACP of Camden County East v. Foulke Mgmt. Corp., 421 N.J. Super....

Inherently Beneficial Use? Yes. Negative Criteria Satisifed? No.

The Salt & Light Company, Inc. v. Willingboro Tp. Bd. of Adj., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2011). Normally, in considering whether to grant a use variance, boards of...

Justice Patterson's First Opinion, and the "Rule of Lenity"

State v. Regis, 208 N.J. 439 (2011). It did not take long for Justice Patterson to write her first opinion for the Supreme Court. As is usually the case with the first...

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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....