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

Pro Se Litigants Have No Right to a Pro Se Manual, or to Other Assistance From the Courts

Mala v. Crown Bay Marina, Inc., 704 F.3d 239 (3d Cir. 2013). Plaintiff, a citizen of the Virgin Islands, refueled his powerboat at defendant's fueling station. The boat's tank overflowed with gasoline,...

Retroactivity … and the Effect of Statutory Numbering

Chiarello v. PERS Bd. of Trustees, 429 N.J. Super. 194 (App. Div. 2012). This opinion by Judge Fisher addressed the question of whether the application of plaintiff for a disability retirement from...

An Unusual Power of the Governor

In re Veto of Minutes of New Jersey Racing Comm'n, 429 N.J. Super. 277 (App. Div. 2012). This case, in which Judge Messano wrote the Appellate Division's opinion, involved an unusual statutory...

The U.S. Supreme Court Says it Again: It is for the Arbitrator, Not a Court, to Decide Whether a Contract Containing an Arbitration Clause is Valid

Nitro-Lift Technologies, LLC v. Howard, 133 S.Ct. 500 (2012). In a line of cases that includes Prima Paint Corp. v. Flood & Conklin Mfg. Co., 388 U.S. 395 (1967), and Buckeye Check...

Standing is Not Jurisdictional in New Jersey State Court

Deutsche Bank Nat'l Trust Co. v. Russo, 429 N.J. Super. 91 (App. Div. 2012). This was another mortgage foreclosure case in which defendants belatedly asserted that plaintiff lacked standing because plaintiff was...

Department of Education Cap on School Superintendent Salary is Valid

New Jersey Ass'n of School Administrators v. Cerf, 428 N.J. Super. 588 (App. Div. 2012). To help reduce property taxes by limiting school district spending, the Department of Education approved, by rule,...

"Affirmed by an Equally Divided Court"

In re Parentage of a Child by T.J.S. and A.L.S., 212 N.J. 334 (2012). As summarized in the syllabus (a convenient but admittedly not authoritative source), the issue was "whether the New Jersey...

Strasenburgh v. Straubmuller

On this date in 1996, the Supreme Court decided Strasenburgh v. Straubmuller, 146 N.J. 527 (1996). Justice O'Hern's opinion for a unanimous Court addressed a number of intricate issues involving...

No Declaration of Taking in Condemnation Matter? No Taking Occurred

Hoagland v. City of Long Branch, 428 N.J. Super. 321 (App. Div. 2012). Plaintiffs owned property in Long Branch as to which the City of Long Branch instituted condemnation proceedings. After...

A Bill of Rights Anniversary

On September 25, 1789, the First Congress proposed twelve amendments to the Constitution. The first two of those amendments, which addressed the number of constitutents for each representative in Congress...

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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."...