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

Busy Days at the Third Circuit

Though the Supreme Court of New Jersey and the Appellate Division are only just beginning to ramp up in the new Term, the Third Circuit has been pumping out published...

Statements Against Interest, a Hearsay Exception

Rowe v. Bell & Gossett Co., 239 N.J. 531 (2019). This first Supreme Court opinion of the new Term, written by Justice Patterson for a unanimous Court, addresses the hearsay...

The Supreme Court Takes Up a Complex Foreclosure Case

[Disclosure: I represent the petitioner in this matter.] The Supreme Court today announced its first grant of review in the new Term. The case is West Pleasant-CPGT, Inc. v. U.S....

No Regulatory or Common Law Duty for Landlord to Cover Radiator With Insulating Material in Order to Avoid Injury to Tenant

J.H. v. R&M Tagliereni, LLC, 239 N.J. 198 (2019). [There was the potential of a guest post regarding this case, but that did not pan out. That's the reason for...

Three More Supreme Court Grants of Review

The Supreme Court announced that is has granted certification in three more cases. Two of them are criminal appeals. The third is an insurance case in which, due to a...

The Supreme Court Takes Up Five More Cases

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted review in five more cases. In four of those matters, the Court granted certification. The fifth case will be before the...

"Affirmed by an Equally Divided Court"

L.R. v. Camden City Public School Dist., 238 N.J. 547 (2019). A relative rarity for our Supreme Court occurred in this case today: the decision of the Appellate Division was...

22 Years Since Lemelledo v. Beneficial Management

On July 3, 1997, the Supreme Court decided Lemelledo v. Beneficial Management Corp. of America, 150 N.J. 255 (1997). Justice Handler's opinion in that case, for a 6-0 Court, is...

A Potentially Pioneering Tort Liability Issue is Left Undecided, Since the Facts Did Not Justify a Verdict for Plaintiffd

G.A.-H. v. K.G.G., 238 N.J. 401 (2019). As noted here, the Supreme Court granted review in this case to address this issue: "Is an individual subject to tort liability for...

Statutory Plain Language Wins the Day for a Survivor Benefit Claimant

S.L.W. v. New Jersey Div. of Pensions & Benefits, 238 N.J. 385 (2019). The statute governing the police and firemen's retirement system ("PFRS") makes children and widowed spouses of police...

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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....