NJ Appellate Law Blog

The Anniversary of the "Seat Belt Defense" Decision

Twenty seven years ago today, the Supreme Court decided Waterson v. General Motors Corp., 111 N.J. 238 (1988). Until then, the Court had not spoken about the effect of seat...

Will the Third Circuit Abrogate Equitable Mootness?

In re One2One Communications, LLC, 805 F.3d 428 (3d Cir. 2015). This post about In re Semicrude, L.P., 728 F.3d 314 (3d Cir. 2013), which discussed the bankruptcy doctrine of...

25 Years Since Frank v. Ivy Club

This year, today is the day when Independence Day, which falls on July 4, is observed, and so the courts are closed. But in some other years, the courts have...

Catching Up

My three-week trial ended late last week, with a successful jury verdict. But June was a very busy month in the world of New Jersey appellate practice, with numerous important...

Yesterday's New York Times Magazine contained an article titled "Better Judgment." The article discussed instances in which famous appellate jurists, including Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Judge Richard Posner of the...

The Anniversary of Sinclair v. Merck

On this date in 2008, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Sinclair v. Merck & Co., Inc., 195 N.J. 51 (2008). In that case, a majority of the Court,...

The Anniversary of the Sham Affidavit Doctrine

On May 22, 2002, the Supreme Court decided Shelcusky v. Garjulio, 172 N.J. 185 (2002). That was a personal injury case in which a forklift driver at a plant where...

The Anniversary of Plessy v. Ferguson, Another Low Point for the United States Supreme Court

On May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896). This is another of the Court's "Supreme Mistakes," as voted by...

The Appellate Division Rejects Ascertainability as a Class Action Criterion, and Changes the Rules for Interlocutory Appeals of Class Certification Decisions

Daniels v. Hollister Co., 440 N.J. Super. 359 (App. Div. 2015). Readers of this blog have gotten their fill (including, most recently, here and here) of discussion and analysis of...

Another Failure to Act by COAH, and Another Court Gives a COAH Power to the Courts Instead

In re Failure of the Council on Affordable Housing to Adopt Trust Fund Commitment Regulations, 440 N.J. Super. 220 (App. Div. 2015). The Fair Housing Act, N.J.S.A. 52:27D-329.2(a), states that...

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Sentencing Counsel's Limited Investigation of Defendant's Citizenship Was Not Constitutionally Ineffective in the Circumstances

State v. Hernandez-Peralta, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Justice Wainer Apter's decision today for a 5-2 Supreme Court majority began by phrasing the issue presented. "In this appeal, we consider whether sentencing counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to investigate defendant's citizenship status beyond asking him if he was a United States citizen and receiving an unequivocal ‘yes,' and therefore not advising him that his plea could make him subject to deportation." The majority found, based on the particular facts, that counsel was not constitutionally ineffective, reversing the two lower courts. Justice Noriega, joined by Justice Fasciale, dissented....

The 2025-26 General Assignment Order

Chief Justice Rabner announced the 2025-26 General Assignment Order. It is available here....

New Jersey's Charity Care Program for Hospitals is Not a Per Se Unconstitutional Taking of Property

Englewood Hospital & Medical Center v. State, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). New Jersey has had a charity care program, in one form or another, for 178 years. As Justice Fasciale summarized the current charity care program in his opinion for a unanimous Supreme Court, under the current program "hospitals cannot turn away a patient for inability to pay, N.J.S.A. 26:2H-18.64, and patients who qualify for charity care shall not be billed for services rendered, N.J.A.C. 10:52-11.4. Instead, ‘disproportionate share hospitals' (DSHs), or hospitals that serve a disproportionate number of low-income patients, see N.J.S.A. 26:2H-18.52, receive annual subsidies from the Health Care Subsidy Fund (HCSF) in exchange for providing charity care, see N.J.S.A. 26:2H-18.52, .58, .58d."...

A Municipal Court Administrator is Employed by the Township, Not the Administrative Office of the Courts

Palmisano v. State of New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2025). The opening paragraph of Judge Marczyk's opinion for the Appellate Division well encapsulates what the appeal was about and what the result was. "Plaintiff Lindsay Palmisano appeals from the trial court's April 1, 2024 order dismissing her complaint with prejudice against defendant State of New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts and Municipal Division (AOC) pursuant to Rule 4:6-2(e). The primary issue on appeal is whether plaintiff, a municipal court administrator, is an employee of the AOC, thereby allowing her to assert a claim against the AOC under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD), N.J.S.A. 10:5-1 to -49. Based on our review of the record and the applicable legal principles, we conclude plaintiff was employed by Vernon Township (Township), not the AOC, and, therefore, we affirm."...

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