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

A Trifecta of Procedural Principles

In re Issuance of Access Conforming Lot Permit No A-17-N-N040-2007, 417 N.J. Super. 115 (App. Div. 2010). This case involved an appeal by an objector to a highway access permit...

The Powers of Chancery

Marioni v. Roxy Garments Delivery Co., Inc., 417 N.J. Super. 269 (App. Div. 2010). In this opinion by Judge Fisher, a former Monmouth County Chancery judge, the Appellate Division discusses the broad...

Family Motions Should Go to the Judge Most Familiar With the Case

Resman v. Resman, 2010 WL 4940039 (App. Div. Dec. 7, 2010). In this case, which involved post-judgment motions in a matrimonial matter, the Presiding Family Part Judge had handled at...

Poetic Justice?

Mosteller v. Naiman, 416 N.J. Super. 632 (App. Div. 2010). In this decision about the proper way to measure damages for destruction of trees on a property not occupied...

Closed Case Can't be Reopened Sua Sponte

New Jersey Div. of Youth & Family Services v. J.D., 417 N.J. Super. 1 (App. Div. 2010). In this child custody matter, the trial court reopened its decision in the...

New Jersey Again Follows California Tort Decisions

Dean v. Barrett Homes, Inc., 204 N.J. 286 (2010). In a 5-2 decision, the Supreme Court concluded that an exterior finish on a home was not integrated into the home...

Shortcut Blocked

Washington Commons, LLC v. City of Jersey City, 416 N.J. Super. 555 (App. Div. 2010). Where two prior lawsuits between the parties were already finally concluded, and no case was...

Interlocutory vs. Final in the Foreclosure Context

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Garner, 416 N.J. Super. 520 (App. Div. 2010). In this opinion by Judge Koblitz, the Appellate Division declared that a purported appeal from a grant...

Diluting the Right to Oral Argument on Trial Level Motions

Abulkhair v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 2010 WL 4226222 (App. Div. Oct. 27, 2010). Here, a party's notice of motion in the Law Division requested oral argument only if there...

Old Appeals Can't be Made New

Siete Urban Associates v. Pitney, Hardin, Kipp & Szuch, 2010 WL 5426650 (App. Div. Oct. 25, 2010). In this opinion, the Appellate Division decried the practice of "dismissals without prejudice...

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Retired Policeman's Pension Benefits Were Wrongly Paid to His Estranged Spouse Rather Than to His Estate, Where He Had Not Designated Anyone to Receive the Pension Benefit if He Died

Isaac v. Board of Trustees, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Two kinds of benefits are payable to retired members of the.Police and Firemen's Retirement System ("PFRS"). One is a pension benefit, a part of the member's compensation for past services. Pension benefits go to the person whom the member designates, or to the member's estate if no designation is made. The other is a survivor's benefit, which goes to the member's widow for the duration of his or her widowhood. Former Newark policeman Keith Isaac made no designation as to his pension benefits, though he did list his estranged wife, Roxanne, as his spouse when he filed for retirement. Based on that, Isaac's pension benefits were distributed to Roxanne. Isaac's estate contested that, and today the Supreme Court held that the estate should have gotten the pension monies....

The Supreme Court Clarifies New Jersey's Automobile Exception to the Requirement of a Search Warrant

State v. Fenimore, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Both the United States and New Jersey Constitutions protect the people against "unreasonable searches and seizures" and prohibit the issuance of search warrants without "probable cause." Both federal and New Jersey law, however, recognize an "automobile exception" to the warrant requirement. But New Jersey's automobile exception is narrower than the federal exception, as the Supreme Court stated in State v. Witt, 223 N.J. 409 (2015). Today, the Supreme Court ruled that the Appellate Division in this case had interpreted Witt too broadly in reversing a Law Division decision to exclude evidence from a warrantless search. The Supreme Court reversed and excluded the evidence....

"Liberal Standards" for Standing "Are Not Equivalent to No Standards At All," the Supreme Court Says

New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers, Inc. v. Ford Motor Co., ___ N.J. ___ (2025). As Justice Pierre-Louis observed in her opinion for a unanimous Court in this case today, New Jersey state courts have long "take[n] a more liberal approach to standing than federal law." But in this appeal, the statute sued upon, the Franchise Practices Act, N.J.S.A. 56:10-1 et seq. ("FPA"), stated that only a "franchisee" could sue its franchisor. Because plaintiff here ("NJCAR") was not a franchisee but an association of franchisees, NJCAR lacked standing to bring a FPA case....

Compassionate Release Act Does Not Require Physical Examination of Inmates Seeking Relief, But Denial of Relief in This Case Was Arbitrary and Capricious

M.R. v. New Jersey Department of Corrections, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Plaintiff appealed the denial of his petition for release under the Compassionate Release Act, N.J.S.A. 30:4-123.51 ("CRA"). He argued that he had not been physically examined by a physician, and that the statute required a physical examination. The Appellate Division determined that the statute did not require a physical examination and upheld the denial of compassionate release. Today, in a unanimous opinion by Justice Hoffman, the Supreme Court agreed that no physical examination was required, but reversed the denial of compassionate relief as insupportable....