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

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...

"You Don't Have to be Jewish …" (A Law Against Discrimination Case)

Cowher v. Carson & Roberts, 425 N.J. Super. 285 (App. Div. 2012). Plaintiff Myron Cowher worked for a trucking company. His two supervisors persistently hurled anti-Semitic epithets at him, including (among many...

The U.S. Supreme Court Addresses Strip-Searches

Florence v. Burlington Cty. Freeholder Bd., 132 U.S. 1510 (2012). When a New Jersey case reaches the Supreme Court of the United States, it often seems to turn into a landmark. This case...

Relation Back and Other Statute of Limitations Issues

Walker v. Choudhary, 425 N.J. Super. 135 (App. Div. 2012). This was a medical malpractice and wrongful death action. Three defendants, a doctor, a medical group, and a company that owns a...

Some Instruction About How to Apply the 10-Year Construction Statute of Repose to a Multi-Phase Project

State v. Perini Corp., 425 N.J. Super. 62 (App. Div. 2012). N.J.S.A. 2A:14-1.1a establishes a ten-year statute of repose for actions involving alleged deficiencies "in the design, planning, surveying, supervision or construction...

Party Lost the Right to Employ an Arbitration Clause by Waiting Too Long to Invoke It

Cole v. Jersey City Medical Center, 425 N.J. Super. 48 (App. Div. 2012). Plaintiff, a nurse anesthetist at Jersey Medical Center, sued the Medical Center and her immediate employer, Liberty Anesthesia Associates...

The Third Circuit Applies Judicial Estoppel

Macfarlan v. Ivy Hill SNF, LLC, 675 F.3d 266 (3d Cir. 2012). "Judicial estoppel is a ‘judge-made doctrine that seeks to prevent a litigant from asserting a position inconsistent with one that...

A Mortgage Priority Dispute Between Banks: Equitable Subrogation

Investors Savings Bank v. Keybank Nat'l Ass'n, 424 N.J. Super. 439 (App. Div. 2012). It is not often that a suit between two banks results in a published opinion. This case, in which...

A Wise Application of the Supreme Court's Directives Regarding Awards of Attorneys' Fees

Grow Company, Inc. v. Chokshi, 424 N.J. Super. 357 (App. Div. 2012). This is yet another in what seems to be an endless stream of appeals of awards of attorneys' fees. That...

Presence of One Telecommuting Employee in New Jersey Subjects Out-of-State Company to New Jersey Corporation Business Tax

Telebright Corp., Inc. v. Director, New Jersey Div. of Taxation, 424 N.J. Super. 384 (App. Div. 2012). Plaintiff, a Delaware company with offices in Maryland, has an employee who telecommutes from New...

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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....