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

A Milestone Date for Motions for Leave to Appeal

On this date in 1956, the Appellate Division decided Romano v. Maglio, 41 N.J. Super. 561 (App. Div. 1956). For 56 years, that opinion, written by Judge Clapp for himself...

The Printing Mart Decision

The end of August is usually a relatively sleepy period in terms of Supreme Court decisions. On this date in 1989, however, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Printing...

Ten Years Since Lonegan I

On this date in 2002, the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided Lonegan v. State, 174 N.J. 435 (2002). There, plaintiffs mounted a challenge to numerous types of state "contract debt"...

An Abbott v. Burke Anniversary

In Abbott v. Burke, the long-running saga regarding school funding that began with what is now known as Abbott I, 100 N.J. 269 (1985), and continues today, the Supreme Court...

An Important Anniversary in Matrimonial Law

On this date in 1980, a unanimous Supreme Court decided Lepis v. Lepis, 83 N.J. 139 (1980). In an opinion by Justice Pashman, the Court addressed "the standards and procedures for...

An Embarrassing Anniversary for Justice Holmes and the U.S. Supreme Court

Even Justice Holmes, one of the greatest Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, sometimes made extremely bad decisions. Eighty five years ago today, in Buck v. Bell,...

An Important Decision Under the Evidence Rules

Konop v. Rosen, 425 N.J. Super. 391 (App. Div. 2012). Trial lawyers and appellate lawyers take heed! The Appellate Division, speaking through an encyclopedic opinion by Judge Messano, has issued one of...

The GM Trucks Class Action Case

On this date in 1995, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals decided In re General Motors Corp. Pick-Up Truck Fuel Tank Products Liab. Litig., 55 F.3d 768 (3d Cir. 1995)....

Front Pay

Quinlan v. Curtiss-Wright Corp., 425 N.J. Super. 335 (App. Div. 2012). This is a long-running employment discrimination case that came back to the Appellate Division after a remand by the Supreme Court....

The Effect of the Product Liability Act's Presumption of Labeling Adequacy on the Statute of Limitations in Products Cases

Kendall v. Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc.., 209 N.J. 173 (2012). In this case, the 5-1 majority opinion by Justice Long offers a comprehensive tutorial about New Jersey's "discovery rule," which mitigates the strict statute...

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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....