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

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...

Non-Delegable Duties: Horrific Facts Don't Make New Law

Davis v. Devereux Foundation, 209 N.J. 269 (2012). Under the Restatement of Agency (Second), §219(2)(c), when one has a duty to protect others and delegates that duty to an agent, such as an...

Even a Non-Citizen May Change Her Name

In re Application of Xiangjing Zhan, 424 N.J. Super. 231 (App. Div. 2012). A permanent resident alien sought to invoke New Jersey's name change statute, N.J.S.A. 2A:52-1 to -4, to change his...

Public Agency Supervisor May be Individually Liable Under Family Medical Leave Act

Haybarger v. Lawrence County Adult Probation & Parole, 667 F.3d 408 (3d Cir. 2012). Plaintiff Debra Haybarger worked for defendant, an agency of the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas. Plaintiff has several...

"What's in a Name?"

Emma v. Evans, 424 N.J. Super. 36 (App. Div. 2012). The title of this post is, unsurprisingly, not my own creation. It is the first line of this opinion by Judge Fisher,...

Jury Homework

State v. Morgan, 423 N.J. Super. 453 (App. Div. 2011). Rule 1:8-8(a) states that a trial court, "in its discretion, may submit a copy of all or part of its instructions to...

Justice Patterson's First Opinion, and the "Rule of Lenity"

State v. Regis, 208 N.J. 439 (2011). It did not take long for Justice Patterson to write her first opinion for the Supreme Court. As is usually the case with the first...

"Appropriate Equitable Relief" Under ERISA is Qualified by Equitable Defenses and Limitations

US Airways, Inc. v. McCutchen, 663 F.3d 671 (3d Cir. 2011). After defendant McCutchen suffered a serious auto accident, a benefit plan administered by plaintiff US Airways paid him nearly $67,000 for his...

Public Notice of Ordinance Rezoning Former General Motors Linden Plant is Held Insufficient

Rockaway Shoprite Associates, Inc. v. City of Linden, 424 N.J. Super. 337 (App. Div. 2011). For many years, a large General Motors assembly plant occupied a 47.5 acre site in...

How Long Does a Defendant Have to Remove a Case to Federal Court?

Delalla v. Hanover Insurance, 660 F.3d 180 (3d Cir. 2011). The federal removal statute, 28 U.S.C. §1446(b), obligates a defendant who wishes to remove to federal court a case filed in state...

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The "Limited Attorney Exemption" of the Debt Adjustment and Credit Counseling Act is Held Unconstitutional as Violative of the Separation of Powers and Void for Vagueness

Anchor Law Firm, PLLC v. State of New Jersey, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2025). The Debt Adjustment and Credit Counseling Act, N.J.S.A. 17:16G-1 et seq. ("DACCA"), prohibits debt adjusters in New Jersey from operating for a profit. There is an exception for attorneys not "principally engaged" (a term not defined in the statute) in debt adjustment. That exception, adopted in a 1986 amendment, replaced a prior version of the DACCA that had exempted all attorneys from its scope....

"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....