NJ Appellate Law Blog

Certain Frivolous Litigation Sanctions are Reversed, But One Such Sanction is Affirmed

Tagayun v. AmeriChoice of New Jersey, Inc., 446 N.J. Super. 570 (App. Div. 2016). As Judge Higbee noted in her opinion for the Appellate Division today, Rule 1:4-8 or N.J.S.A....

Remittitur Decisions Cannot Take Account of Awards in Other Cases

Cuevas v. Wentworth Group, 226 N.J. 480 (2016). In He v. Miller, 207 N.J. 230 (2011), the Supreme Court addressed issues of remittitur at length and in detail. Among other...

The Supreme Court Will Review a Family Law Case and a Search Warrant Case

The Supreme Court has announced that it has granted review in two cases. The first matter, Bisbing v. Bisbing, arises out of the Family Part. The Appellate Divsiion's decision, reported...

Municipal Ban on Digital Billboards is Unconstitutional

E&J Equities v. Franklin Tp. Bd. of Adj. , 226 N.J. 549 (2016). Billboards are not everyone's favorite thing. Many view them as a blot on the landscape (and not...

The Anniversary of Cox v. Sears Roebuck

On this date in 1994, the Supreme Court decided Cox v. Sears Roebuck & Co., 138 N.J. 2 (1994). This unanimous opinion by Justice Clifford continues to be one of...

Savings as a Component of Alimony

Lombardi v. Lombardi, 447 N.J. Super. 26 (App. Div. 2016). "[A]limony is neither a punishment for the payor nor a reward for the payee…. It is a right arising out...

As Expected, The Supreme Court Takes Up Another Affordable Housing Case, and Expedites the Appeal

In In re Declaratory Judgment Actions Filed by Various Municipalities, 446 N.J. Super. 259 (App. Div. 2016), discussed here (under the heading "Another Mount Laurel Case for the Supreme Court?"),...

No Waiver of Arbitration Clause Even After Years of Litigation, Because Arbitration Demand, Pre-AT&T v. Concepcion, Would Have Been Futile

Chassen v. Fidelity Nat'l Financial, Inc., 836 F.3d 291 (3d Cir. 2016). [Disclosure: I was an expert witness for plaintiffs in this case, but my Declaration and deposition testimony was...

A "Bleak House" for the 21st Century- Chavez v. Dole Food Co.

Chavez v. Dole Food Co., 836 F.3d 205 (3d Cir. 2016). In the classic Charles Dickens book "Bleak House," the legal case of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce ran for so many...

In re Reglan Litigation: No Federal Preemption of State Law Claim That Generic Drug Carried Inadequate Warning

In re Reglan Litigation, 226 N.J. 315 (2016). Plaintiffs in this mass tort matter claimed that defendants, who are generic manufacturers of metoclopramide, the generic version of the drug Reglan,...

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Two Criminal Appeals and Two Eminent Domain Cases for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in four new cases. Two of them are criminal matters. The other two involve eminent domain issues. One of the criminal appeals is before the Court on leave to appeal, the second grant of leave to appeal in the current Term. The Court granted certification in the other three matters....

Appellate Division Oral Argument of the Week: Can the Borough of Caldwell Recoup Payment for Professional Services That it Previously Made?

Tomorrow, September 11, a panel of judges on the Appellate Division's Part B will hear oral argument in Borough of Caldwell v. Cozzarelli-Cirminiello Architects, LLC. The case is before the Appellate Division following the grant of defendant's motion for leave to appeal the denial of its motion to dismiss the Complaint....

The First Published Appellate Division Opinion of the 2025-26 Term

Alcantara v. Moro, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2025). Judge Smith authored this opinion for the Appellate Division, that court's first published opinion of the new Term. The appeal was from a final decision of the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education that the School Funding Reform Act, N.J.S.A. 8A:7F-43 et seq. ("SFRA"), was constitutional as applied to the Township of Lakewood....

The First Supreme Court Grant of Review in the 2025-26 Term

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted leave to appeal in State v. Caneiro, a quadruple homicide case. The question presented, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk's office, is "Under the circumstances presented, where defendant's house was on fire, was the warrantless seizure of evidence from the garage justified under the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement?"...