NJ Appellate Law Blog

Which Appellate Deadlines Are Jurisdictional?

Hamer v. Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, 138 S.Ct. 13 (2017). In Bowles v. Russell, 551 U.S. 205 (2007), the Supreme Court of the United States explained that an appeal...

A Brokerage Commission Case, Where the Broker's Third-Party Beneficiary, Unjust Enrichment, and Quantum Meruit Claims Failed

Pollack v. Quick Quality Restaurants, Inc., 452 N.J. Super. 174 (App. Div. 2017). The first paragraph of Judge Gibbons Whipple's opinion for the Appellate Division well encapsulated what this appeal...

A Case That Everyone Knows: Brill v. Guardian Life Ins. Co., Decided 22 Years Ago Today

If there is one case that every New Jersey litigator, and even most non-litigators, know, it is Brill v. Guardian Life Ins. Co., 142 N.J. 520 (1995). That opinion, written...

Health Club Membership Agreements Are Not Retail Installment Sales Contracts

Mellet v. Aquasid, LLC, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2017). The decision in this consumer protection case was issued in June as an unpublished opinion. Defendant then asked the...

Last-Minute Motions in Limine Cannot Properly be Used Instead of Properly Noticed Dispositive Motions

L.C. v. M.A.J., 451 N.J. Super. 408 (App. Div. 2017). In Cho v. Trinitas Regional Medical Center, 443 N.J. Super. 461 (App. Div. 2016), discussed here, Judge Espinosa wrote an...

In a Construction Defect Case, the Supreme Court Again Clarifies Statute of Limitations Law

The Palisades at Fort Lee Condominium Association, Inc. v. 100 Old Palisade, LLC, 230 N.J. 427 (2017). This opinion, by Justice Albin for a unanimous Court, involved a lengthy construction...

Volunteer Fireman is Not an "Employee" of His Volunteer Fire Company for Purposes of CEPA

Sauter v. Colts Neck Volunteer Fire Co. No. 2, 451 N.J. Super. 581 (App. Div. 2017). The Conscientious Employee Protection Act, N.J.S.A. 34:19-1 to -14 ("CEPA") protects "employees who report...

Plaintiff is Over the Moon, as the Third Circuit Applies New Jersey's Arbitration Cases to Defeat Defendant's Demand for Arbitration

Moon v. Breathless, Inc., 868 F.3d 209 (3d Cir. 2017). At least since 2014, when the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided Atalese v. U.S. Legal Servs. Grp., L.P., 219...

Another Accutane Decision, and a Big Win for Plaintiffs

, 451 N.J. Super. 153 (App. Div. 2017). [Disclosure: I was one of the counsel who argued this appeal for the successful plaintiffs]. This must be Accutane week. On Tuesday,...

Defendant Who Fails to Timely Serve Notice of Tort Claim Cannot Sue Public Entity for Contribution or Common Law Indemnification

Jones v. Morey's Pier, Inc., 230 N.J. 142 (2017). Under the New Jersey Tort Claims Act, N.J.S.A. 59:8-8, a tort plaintiff who fails to timely serve a notice of tort...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 252627 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51…Last

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)....