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

Shadow Juries

BASF Corp. v. Lyondell Chemical Co., 2010 WL 5288645 (App. Div. Dec. 28, 2010). This appeal involved a contract dispute between two corporations. Trial resulted in a judgment for BASF...

"Catalyst Doctrine" Applied to Statute That Awards Damages

D. Russo, Inc. v. Union Tp., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2010). In Mason v. Hoboken, 196 N.J. 51 (2008), an Open Public Records Act ("OPRA") case, the Supreme...

Broad Powers of an Arbitrator

Manger v. Manger, 417 N.J. Super. 370 (App. Div. 2010). The parties in this matrimonial action settled some of their differences before a judge shortly before a scheduled trial. They then agreed...

Commerce Bancorp., Inc. v. Interarch, Inc., 417 N.J. Super. 329 (App. Div. 2010). The question in this case revolved around Commerce Bank's indemnification of Interarch and its principal, Shirley Hill, the wife...

Trial Summations Using Powerpoint

Romano v. Stubbs, 2010 WL 5392942 (App. Div. Dec. 16, 2010). In this personal injury case, the plaintiff's trial summation was accompanied by a Powerpoint presentation that the plaintiff did...

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...

Some People Are Just Too Eager to Appeal

Suazo v. Diletto, 2010 WL 4880700 (App. Div. Dec. 1, 2010). In this case, after receiving a copy of the appellant's brief and appendix, including the transcript of the proceedings...

The Rules are the Rules, Even When They Protect Wrongdoers

Kizima v. Bartone, 2010 WL 4721201 (App. Div. Nov. 23, 2010). This brief decision recounts that the plaintiffs had failed to respond to discovery, and the trial court dismissed their...

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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....