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

Supreme Court Will Review Estate of Desir v. Vertus

In Estate of Desir v. Vertus, 418 N.J. Super. 310 (App. Div. 2011), discussed here, the Appellate Division allowed a party who went to help a neighbor with "something going on" at his...

Failure to Provide Trial Court's Supplemental Opinion to Appellate Division Dooms Appeal

Raspavolo v. New Jersey State Police, 2011 WL 2848475 (App. Div. Sept. 20, 2011). Plaintiff appealed the January 22, 2010 denial of his motion to vacate a previously entered dismissal of...

Calculating the Available Discovery Period

Jatczyszyn v. Marcal Paper Mills, Inc., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2011). The key issue in this case involves how to calculate the discovery period permitted by the Court Rules in a circumstance where...

A Defamation Suit by Donald Trump Fails

Trump v. O'Brien, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2011). Donald Trump normally enjoys publicity. Tim O'Brien, a financial reporter, wrote a book about Trump that stated, among other things,...

Affidavit of Merit Statute Does Not Apply to Unlicensed Persons, and Some Other Lessons

Albrecht v. Correctional Medical Services, 422 N.J. Super. 265 (App. Div. 2011). The Affidavit of Merit statute, N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-26 to -29, makes the submission of an affidavit that a suit has merit...

Don't Count Your Chickens ….

Today's Star-Ledger contained an obituary of Elizabeth Bernoskie. She was the widow of Rahway police officer Charles Bernoskie, who was killed in the line of duty in 1958. Forty years...

A "Creepy" Landmark Case

On September 2, 1971, 40 years ago today, an exterminator wrote to Donald Krobatsch to advise that the house that Krobatsch and his wife had contracted to buy from Natalie...

Insurer Need Not Pay for Alleged "Diminution in Value" of Automobile After Accident and Full Repair, Where Insurance Policy Expressly Excluded Such Coverage

Kieffer v. High Point Ins. Co., 422 N.J. Super. 38 (App. Div. 2011). This matter involves three consolidated cases. In each, one or more insureds sued their auto insurer after their cars had been...

Deprivation of Deferred Retirement Benefits Due to Conviction of Crime May Occur Only When Offense Relates to Official Duties

In re Hess, 422 N.J. Super. 27 (App. Div. 2011). Suzanne Hess was employed as a Geographic Information Specialist by the New Jersey Office of Information Technology. She filed an application for a...

"A Procedural Swamp"

Lombardi v. Masso, 207 N.J. 517 (2011). In this case, a Law Division judge granted summary judgment to certain defendants. The judge then denied plaintiff's motion for reconsideration. Another defendant had defaulted....

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152153154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167…Last

"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....