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

Cornett v. Johnson & Johnson: A Fact-Specific Decision on Statute of Limitations, But Largely an Affirmance of the Ruling Below That Some of Plaintiffs' Claims are Not Pre-Empted

Cornett v. Johnson & Johnson, 211 N.J. 362 (2012). This is a long-awaited decision in the tort/medical device realm, involving as it does the issues of choice of law for statute...

Shelton v. Restaurant.com to be Re-Argued in the Supreme Court of New Jersey

In Shelton v. Restaurant.com, Inc., the Supreme Court of New Jersey took the relatively rare step of accepting questions certified to it by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. That...

Supreme Court Affirms Appellate Division's Rejection of Suit Challenging "Kyleigh's Law"

Trautmann v. Christie, 211 N.J. 300 (2012). "Kyleigh's Law" requires teenage drivers to place an identifying marker on their cars. That law displeased some, particularly the affected drivers and their...

Employee Cannot Sue Employer's Worker's Compensation Carrier for Pain and Suffering Caused by Carrier's Delay in Paying Benefits

Stancil v. ACE USA, ___ N.J. ___ (2012). "In this matter, we are asked to create a common law cause of action that would permit an injured employee, who is...

Supreme Court Announces Rule Amendments to be Effective on September 1, 2012

The Supreme Court has approved amendments to a number of Court Rules. The amendments take effect on September 1, 2012. The changes to the appellate rules fall into four general...

No Emotional Distress Damages for Witnessing Death of Pet

McDougall v. Lamm, 211 N.J. 203 (2012). In Portee v. Jaffee, 84 N.J. 88 (1980), the Supreme Court established limited circumstances under which a person who observes the negligently-caused death...

Rutgers Violated Open Public Meetings Act in Some Respects, But That Statute Gave Plaintiff No Remedy

McGovern v. Rutgers, The State University, 211 N.J. 94 (2012). Plaintiff complained that the Board of Governors of Rutgers, The State University, violated the Open Public Meetings Act, N.J.S.A. 10:4-6...

DePascale v. New Jersey: The Supreme Court Speaks

DePascale v. State of New Jersey, 211 N.J. 40 (2012). Article VI, section 6, paragraph 6 of the New Jersey Constitution states that "[t]he Justices of the Supreme Court and...

Supreme Court Will Issue DePascale Decision Tomorrow

The Supreme Court announced this morning that it will issue its decision in DePascale v. New Jersey, the "Judges Pension Case," tomorrow at 10 A.M. The ruling is likely to...

Sales Taxes Under the Bankruptcy Code: A Fascinating, and Difficult, Issue of Statutory Interpretation

In re Michael Calabrese, Jr., 689 F.3d 312 (3d Cir. 2012). Most issues of statutory interpretation can be resolved either by the plain language of the statute, by an analysis of...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 838485 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99…Last

"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....