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

Unclear Arbitration Clauses Will Not be Enforced

Atalese v. U.S. Legal Servs. Grp., L.P., 219 N.J. 430 (2014). Plaintiff entered into a contract with defendant for debt-adjustment services. The contract contained an arbitration clause that did not...

Peter Cammarano, III, Former Hoboken Mayor Involved in Dwek Sting Operation, is Disbarred

In re Peter J. Cammarano, III, 219 N.J. 415 (2014). "An elected official who sells his office– who offers favored treatment to a private developer in exchange for money– betrays...

Supreme Court Says Hoboken City Clerk Violated New Jersey Civil Rights Act

Tumpson v. Farina, 218 N.J. 450 (2014). [Disclosure: Victor A. Afanador and Jeffrey A. Shooman, my colleagues at Lite DePalma Greenberg, LLC, represented the municipal defendants in this case]. The Appellate Division in...

A Pro-Plaintiff Ruling in a Civil Rights Act Case

Gormley v. Wood-El, 218 N.J. 72 (2014). Cases under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. §1983, are often difficult for plaintiffs. Such cases often fail, frequently on dispositive motions, due to qualified...

Jury Charges on Causation in Medical Malpractice Cases

Komlodi v. Picciano, 217 N.J. 387 (2014). Causation is often a key factor in medical malpractice cases. And jury charges in such cases are, as in all cases, important to...

The Supreme Court Grants COAH's Motion for an Extension of Time to Promulgate Third Round Rules

Today witnessed the latest event in the ongoing saga regarding third round rules for low and moderate-income housing to be adopted by the Council on Affordable Housing ("COAH"). As discussed...

A Statute Trumps the Common Law

Farmers Mut. Fire Ins. Co. of Salem v. New Jersey Property-Liability Ins. Guar. Ass'n, 215 N.J. 552 (2013). Today's unanimous opinion by Justice Albin addresses the proper allocation of environmental cleanup...

Both General and Special Benefits Must be Considering in Valuing "Just Compensation" for Takings

Borough of Harvey Cedars v. Karan, 214 N.J. 384 (2013). Using the power of eminent domain, the Borough of Harvey Cedars took a portion of defendants' beachfront property (actually, the Borough took...

Estate of Desir v. Vertus Reversed: Defendant Owed No Duty of Care

Estate of Desir v. Vertus, 214 N.J. 303 (2013). In this case, which involved the application of premises liability and the rescue doctrine to a tragic shooting death, the Appellate Division reversed the Law...

Reading the Plain Language of the Patients First Act

Nicholas v. Mynster, 213 N.J. 463 (2013). Until the advent of the New Jersey Medical Care Access and Responsibility and Patients First Act, codified in part at N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-41, "in medical-malpractice cases, physician experts...

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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....