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

Failure to Recreate the District Court Record as Ordered Leads to a Loss on Appeal

Roberts v. Ferman, 826 F.3d 117 (3d Cir. 2016). Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 10(c) deals with the circumstance in which a transcript of a District Court hearing or trial...

Law Against Discrimination Statute of Limitations Cannot be Shortened by Contract

Rodriguez v. Raymours Furniture Co., Inc., 225 N.J. 343 (2016). Plaintiff became employed by defendant, who is better known to the public as Raymour & Flanigan. The employment application that...

Public Employees Lose Again, as Supreme Court Upholds Suspension of Pension Cost of Living Adjustments

Berg v. Christie, 225 N.J. 245 (2016). Today's decision in this closely-watched case shows once again the importance of the standard of review applied. In a 6-1 decision by Justice...

When is a Child Witness Competent to Testify?

State v. Bueso, 225 N.J. 193 (2016). Today, the Supreme Court addressed the issue of how a trial court should evaluate the competency of a child witness to testify. The...

Hospitals Lose Their Appeal of Horizon's OMNIA Health Alliance

Capital Health System, Inc. v. New Jersey Dep't of Banking & Insurance, 445 N.J. Super. 522 (App. Div. 2016). In September 2015, the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance...

Temporary Help Service Firms vs. Employment Agencies, and Registration vs. Licensure

AIT Global Inc. v. Yadav, 445 N.J. Super. 513 (App. Div. 2016). Plaintiff in this case was a temporary help service firm ("THSF") that provided short-term information technology consultants for...

Justice Timpone to be Publicly Sworn in Today

The Supreme Court announced that there will be a public swearing-in ceremony for Justice Timpone today at 5 P.M. The ceremony will take place in the atrium of the Seton...

"Cumulative Error" Results in Reversal of a Plaintiffs' Jury Verdict

Torres v. Pabon, 225 N.J. 167 (2016). As Justice Patterson explained in her decision today for a unanimous Supreme Court, "cumulative error" exists when "the aggregate effect of a series...

An Important Religion Case for the Supreme Court

American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey v. Hendricks, 445 N.J. Super. 452 (App. Div. 2016). In 1978, the Supreme Court decided Resnick v. East Brunswick Bd. of Educ., 77...

Gun Control Act is Constitutional as Applied to Machine Guns, and a Trust That Owns a Machine Gun is Subject to That Law

United States v. One Palmetto State Armory PA-15 Machinegun, 822 F.3d 136 (3d Cir. 2016). Constitutional challenges to gun regulations are frequently filed, and most of them are without basis....

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Retired Policeman's Pension Benefits Were Wrongly Paid to His Estranged Spouse Rather Than to His Estate, Where He Had Not Designated Anyone to Receive the Pension Benefit if He Died

Isaac v. Board of Trustees, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Two kinds of benefits are payable to retired members of the.Police and Firemen's Retirement System ("PFRS"). One is a pension benefit, a part of the member's compensation for past services. Pension benefits go to the person whom the member designates, or to the member's estate if no designation is made. The other is a survivor's benefit, which goes to the member's widow for the duration of his or her widowhood. Former Newark policeman Keith Isaac made no designation as to his pension benefits, though he did list his estranged wife, Roxanne, as his spouse when he filed for retirement. Based on that, Isaac's pension benefits were distributed to Roxanne. Isaac's estate contested that, and today the Supreme Court held that the estate should have gotten the pension monies....

The Supreme Court Clarifies New Jersey's Automobile Exception to the Requirement of a Search Warrant

State v. Fenimore, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Both the United States and New Jersey Constitutions protect the people against "unreasonable searches and seizures" and prohibit the issuance of search warrants without "probable cause." Both federal and New Jersey law, however, recognize an "automobile exception" to the warrant requirement. But New Jersey's automobile exception is narrower than the federal exception, as the Supreme Court stated in State v. Witt, 223 N.J. 409 (2015). Today, the Supreme Court ruled that the Appellate Division in this case had interpreted Witt too broadly in reversing a Law Division decision to exclude evidence from a warrantless search. The Supreme Court reversed and excluded the evidence....

"Liberal Standards" for Standing "Are Not Equivalent to No Standards At All," the Supreme Court Says

New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers, Inc. v. Ford Motor Co., ___ N.J. ___ (2025). As Justice Pierre-Louis observed in her opinion for a unanimous Court in this case today, New Jersey state courts have long "take[n] a more liberal approach to standing than federal law." But in this appeal, the statute sued upon, the Franchise Practices Act, N.J.S.A. 56:10-1 et seq. ("FPA"), stated that only a "franchisee" could sue its franchisor. Because plaintiff here ("NJCAR") was not a franchisee but an association of franchisees, NJCAR lacked standing to bring a FPA case....

Compassionate Release Act Does Not Require Physical Examination of Inmates Seeking Relief, But Denial of Relief in This Case Was Arbitrary and Capricious

M.R. v. New Jersey Department of Corrections, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Plaintiff appealed the denial of his petition for release under the Compassionate Release Act, N.J.S.A. 30:4-123.51 ("CRA"). He argued that he had not been physically examined by a physician, and that the statute required a physical examination. The Appellate Division determined that the statute did not require a physical examination and upheld the denial of compassionate release. Today, in a unanimous opinion by Justice Hoffman, the Supreme Court agreed that no physical examination was required, but reversed the denial of compassionate relief as insupportable....