NJ Appellate Law Blog

The 1,500th Post- Making up a December Deficit

A major Appellate Division argument, appellate briefing, and other work has interfered with keeping up with the courts during December. So it's time for one of this blog's periodic "catch-up"...

Fox Rothschild Case, and Two Criminal Appeals, Come to the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in three cases. Two of them are criminal matters. The third involves a claim against the Fox Rothschild law firm on...

Assignor's Loss of a Mortgage Note Does Not Preclude Foreclosure by an Assignee

Investors Bank v. Torres, 457 N.J. Super. 53 (App. Div. 2018). In this foreclosure case, the plaintiff bank was the assignee of a note that was secured by a mortgage....

At-Will Employee Cannot Bring Oppressed Shareholder Claim Based on Termination of Employment

Metro Commercial Management Services, Inc. v. Van Istendal, 457 N.J. Super. 66 (App. Div. 2018). This opinion, issued today, is the first published opinion authored by Judge Firko. It involves...

Applying the Statute of Limitations for Foreclosure Cases

Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas v. Weiner, 456 N.J. Super. 546 (App. Div. 2018). Judge Fisher issued this short decision in this case today. The body of the opinion consumes...

Equitable Adoption Doctrine Cannot be Used to Destroy Inheritance Rights

In re Estate of Douglas Castellano and Parentage of Gregory Bock, 456 N.J. Super. 510 (App. Div. 2018). This unusually captioned appeal presented a Chancery issue that was right up...

Halloween: A Not-at-All Spooky Anniversary in Defamation Law

On October 31, 1955, the Supreme Court decided Rainier's Dairies v. Raritan Valley Farms, Inc., 19 N.J. 552 (1955). It was a 6-1 decision, with Justice Jacobs writing for the...

The Supreme Court Will Address "Not Raised Below," and Three Criminal Appeals

The Supreme Court has announced that it has granted certification in three cases, all criminal matters, and that a civil case will be before it on an appeal as of...

A Pinata, A Pole, and an Injury

Piech v. Layendecker, 456 N.J. Super. 367 (App. Div. 2018). This opinion by Judge Fasciale effectively summarizes all the issues, and the result on each issue, in its opening paragraph....

A Banner Day in the Appellate Division for Lite DePalma Greenberg, LLC and Its Clients

Russo v. Friedrich, 2018 WL 4904555 (App. Div. Oct. 10, 2018); City of Newark Public Schools v. OPEIU Local 32, 2018 WL 4905414 (App. Div. Oct. 10, 2018). It's a...

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In Primary Election Dispute, the Supreme Court Declines to Rewrite Election Laws to Create Remedies Not Afforded by Those Statutes

Johnson v. Wilkerson, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Chief Justice Rabner's opinion for a unanimous Court follows on the Court's September 19, 2025 Order that upheld a ruling by Judge Sabatino in an emergent appeal by a candidate for a Roselle council seat. That Order stated that an opinion would follow....

Appellate Division Oral Argument of the Week: Two Well-Known Law Firms Face Off Against Each Other, as Parties

Tomorrow, October 28, judges on Part E of the Appellate Division will hear oral argument in Nagel Rice, LLP v. Starkey, Kelly, Kenneally, Cunningham & Turnbach. It is relatively rare for one law firm to sue another, but that has occurred here....

Two Certified Question Cases From the Third Circuit, and a Related Grant of Leave to Appeal, for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in three new matters. Two of them involve questions certified to the Court by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, under Rule 2:12A. It is relatively rare for the Court to receive, and rarer for it to grant, petitions to decide certified questions, and it appears unprecedented for the Court to have granted review in two such cases at the same time. The other new case is a grant of leave to appeal to address one of the same issues presented in one of the certified question matters....

Still Another Committee on Character Anniversary

This blog has in the past noted anniversaries of Supreme Court decisions involving appeals from the Court's Committee on Character, on which I served for fifteen years. Today is another such anniversary, as on October 22, 1997, the Court decided In re Triffin, 151 N.J. 510 (1997)....