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

Some Instruction About How to Apply the 10-Year Construction Statute of Repose to a Multi-Phase Project

State v. Perini Corp., 425 N.J. Super. 62 (App. Div. 2012). N.J.S.A. 2A:14-1.1a establishes a ten-year statute of repose for actions involving alleged deficiencies "in the design, planning, surveying, supervision or construction...

Party Lost the Right to Employ an Arbitration Clause by Waiting Too Long to Invoke It

Cole v. Jersey City Medical Center, 425 N.J. Super. 48 (App. Div. 2012). Plaintiff, a nurse anesthetist at Jersey Medical Center, sued the Medical Center and her immediate employer, Liberty Anesthesia Associates...

The Third Circuit Applies Judicial Estoppel

Macfarlan v. Ivy Hill SNF, LLC, 675 F.3d 266 (3d Cir. 2012). "Judicial estoppel is a ‘judge-made doctrine that seeks to prevent a litigant from asserting a position inconsistent with one that...

A Mortgage Priority Dispute Between Banks: Equitable Subrogation

Investors Savings Bank v. Keybank Nat'l Ass'n, 424 N.J. Super. 439 (App. Div. 2012). It is not often that a suit between two banks results in a published opinion. This case, in which...

A Wise Application of the Supreme Court's Directives Regarding Awards of Attorneys' Fees

Grow Company, Inc. v. Chokshi, 424 N.J. Super. 357 (App. Div. 2012). This is yet another in what seems to be an endless stream of appeals of awards of attorneys' fees. That...

Presence of One Telecommuting Employee in New Jersey Subjects Out-of-State Company to New Jersey Corporation Business Tax

Telebright Corp., Inc. v. Director, New Jersey Div. of Taxation, 424 N.J. Super. 384 (App. Div. 2012). Plaintiff, a Delaware company with offices in Maryland, has an employee who telecommutes from New...

Non-Delegable Duties: Horrific Facts Don't Make New Law

Davis v. Devereux Foundation, 209 N.J. 269 (2012). Under the Restatement of Agency (Second), §219(2)(c), when one has a duty to protect others and delegates that duty to an agent, such as an...

Professional Association Has Standing to Sue on Behalf of Its Members, and Court Would Overlook Procedural Deficiency, But Association Still Loses on the Merits

New Jersey Dental Ass'n v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 424 N.J. Super. 160 (App. Div. 2012). Many cases have rightly held that, under New Jersey's liberal standing rules, organizations have standing to...

Citizens of Walsh Act Municipalities Have the Same Right to a Referendum on Authorizing Indebtedness as Citizens of Other Types of Municipalities Do

In re Petition for Referendum to Repeal Ordinance 2010-27 of Margate City, 424 N.J. Super. 242 (App. Div. 2012). The Home Rule Act, N.J.S.A. 40:49-27, establishes the right to a public referendum...

Police Officer Who Enters Premises in the Line of Duty is At Least a Licensee, to Whom Landowner Owes a Duty of Care

Rowe v. Mazel Thirty, LLC, 209 N.J. 35 (2012). Plaintiff was a police officer whose duties in a "Safe Streets" program included checking vacant apartment buildings for drugs or other illicit activity. Plaintiff was going down...

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An Arbitration Case and a Cannabis Land Use Appeal for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in two new appeals. One of those is from a published Appellate Division decision, while the other appeal is from an unpublished opinion of a two-judge Appellate Division panel....

Murder Trial Judge Inadequately Addressed Juror Misconduct, Requiring Remand to Determine Whether Jury Was Tainted

State v. Byrd, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). Justice Noriega authored the Court's unanimous opinion in this case today. During the murder trial that led to this appeal, allegations of misconduct by a certain juror, No. 8, surfaced. That juror allegedly conducted outside research, discussed the case with third parties, texted one of the defendants, and expressed an intent to find defendants guilty. The trial judge questioned Juror No. 8, but on appeal from defendants' convictions, the Supreme Court concluded that the trial court's inquiry "was insufficiently tailored to the allegations against the juror, failed to probe into the heart of the allegations, and was therefore inadequate." The Court remanded the case for further proceedings....

Attorney General's Supersession of the Paterson Police Department Was Not Arbitrary, Capricious, or Unreasonable

Bulur v. Office of the Attorney General, ___ N.J. ___ (2025). In 2023, after a fatal shooting by Paterson police officers, the New Jersey Attorney General announced on March 27, 2023 that his office was superseding (that is, taking over responsibility for) the Paterson Police Department. Lawsuits were filed and transferred to the Appellate Division. In an opinion reported at 480 N.J. Super. 395 (App. Div. 2024), and summarized here, the Appellate Division voided the supersession. Today, the Supreme Court reversed in a unanimous opinion by Justice Patterson....

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....