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

Back in Action

The appellate courts have not been idle since the most recent post on this blog. Opinions have been issued, the Supreme Court has taken up more cases for review, and...

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...

State Medicaid-Related Regulation Voided by the Appellate Division as Inconsistent With State Statute

G.C. v. Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services, 463 N.J. Super. 79 (App. Div. 2020). Appellate review of an administrative agency regulation "begins with a presumption that the [Regulation...

Third-Party Defendant Not Sued Directly by Plaintiff Must Still Participate at Trial Absent a Valid Defense to the Third-Party Claim

Mejia v. Quest Diagnostics, Inc., 241 N.J. 360 (2020). Today's opinion by Justice Fernandez-Vina, for a unanimous Supreme Court, involved "whether a third-party defendant, facing only claims for contribution and...

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...

Non-Delegation Doctrine Does Not Apply to Executive Actions

United States v. Bruce, 950 F.3d 173 (3d Cir. 2020). The "non-delegation" doctrine, used by the Supreme Court of the United States in the 1930's to void certain aspects of...

Why Do We Still Have "Unpublished" Appellate Division Opinions?

State v. Thompson, 462 N.J. Super. 370 (App. Div. 2020). Judge Fisher, in this ruling issued today in a DWI case, "readily acknowledge[d] this opinion expresses nothing new." One might...

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...

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The "Limited Attorney Exemption" of the Debt Adjustment and Credit Counseling Act is Held Unconstitutional as Violative of the Separation of Powers and Void for Vagueness

Anchor Law Firm, PLLC v. State of New Jersey, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2025). The Debt Adjustment and Credit Counseling Act, N.J.S.A. 17:16G-1 et seq. ("DACCA"), prohibits debt adjusters in New Jersey from operating for a profit. There is an exception for attorneys not "principally engaged" (a term not defined in the statute) in debt adjustment. That exception, adopted in a 1986 amendment, replaced a prior version of the DACCA that had exempted all attorneys from its scope....

"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....