NJ Appellate Law Blog

"Ministerial Exception" That Bars Employment Discrimination Claims by Ministers Employed by Religious Institutions Also Covers Other Claims Related to the Institution's Employment Decision

Hyman v. Rosenbaum Yeshiva of New Jersey, 474 N.J. Super. 561 (App. Div. 2023). As Judge Mitterhoff explained in her opinion for the Appellate Division today, the Free Exercise and...

A Landlord-Tenant Anniversary

On February 6, 1967, the Supreme Court decided Mayfair Fabrics v. Henley, 48 N.J. 483 (1967). In an opinion by Justice Jacobs, the Court unanimously held valid what came to...

Statutory Limit on Removed Municipal Administrator's "Salary" Applies to "Severance"

Carelli v. Borough of Caldwell, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2022). N.J.S.A. 40A:9-138 deals with the removal of a municipal administrator from office. The statute provides for a resolution...

The First Supreme Court Opinion of the Current Term

Dennehy v. East Windsor Regional Bd. of Educ., 252 N.J. 201 (2022). As discussed here, this case involved an injury to a high school field hockey player at an informal...

The Underinsured Motorist Coverage Requirement of the Transportation Network Company Safety and Regulatory Act Does Not Apply to Food Delivery Services

Malzberg v. Josey, 473 N.J. Super. 537 (App. Div. 2022). Here is how Judge Susswein's opinion for the Appellate Division in this case described the purely legal issue presented. "This...

The Supreme Court Overrules New Jersey's "New Business" Rule That Barred New Businesses From Seeking Lost Profits Damages

Schwartz v. Menas, 251 N.J. 556 (2022). [Disclosure: I argued this case for the successful plaintiffs, having handled the appeal along with co-counsel, Giovanni DePierro of DePierro Radding]. In 1936,...

Insurance Policy Exclusion Was Clear and Did Not Require a Causal Relationship

Norman International, Inc. v. Admiral Ins. Co., 251 N.J. 538 (2022). This case arose out of an injury to an employee of Home Depot in Nassau County, New York while...

Insurance, Attorneys' Fees in a Common Law Right of Access to Public Documents Case, and Expungement Under the Cannabis Act Will be Before the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in three new cases. Two of them, both civil matters, were grants of certification. The third appeal, a criminal case, is...

Tolling of Statute of Limitations for Claims by Minors Does Not Apply to Minors Who Have Died, and on Whose Behalf a Wrongful Death Case is Brought

Monk v. Kennedy University Hospital, Inc., 473 N.J. Super. 178 (App. Div. 2022). This opinion today by Judge Berdote Byrne is, I believe, her first published decision for the Appellate...

Common Law Rescue Doctrine Does Not Extend to Rescue of Property, as Opposed to People

Samolyk v. Berthe, 251 N.J. 732 (2022). As discussed here, this case involved a set of facts in which one of the plaintiffs jumped into a lagoon to rescue their...

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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)....