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

"[T]echnical Defects Should Not Serve to Defeat an Otherwise Valid Filing"

Vanderslice v. Stewart, 220 N.J. 385 (2015). This case arose out of a mandatory, non-binding arbitration of an auto accident. Rule 4:21A-6(b)(1) requires that a party who seeks to appeal...

Zoning for Open Space

Griepenburg v. Ocean Tp., 220 N.J. 239 (2015). In Riggs v. Long Beach Tp., 109 N.J. 601 (1988), the Supreme Court established a test for determining whether a municipal zoning...

When Does Corporal Punishment of a Child With Behavioral Issues Become Child Abuse or Neglect?

New Jersey Division of Youth & Family Services v. S.H., 439 N.J. Super. 137 (App. Div. 2015). Scott, a fifteen-year old with ADHD, was accused by his older sister, Sara,...

No Civil Rights Act Claim by Demoted Municipal Employee Where He Did Not Actually Exercise First Amendment Rights

Heffernan v. City of Paterson, 777 F.3d 147 (3d Cir. 2015). [Disclosure: Victor A. Afanador and Susana Cruz Hodge, my colleagues at Lite DePalma Greenberg, LLC, represented the successful appellees...

The Effect of a Master Plan Reexamination Report

Myers v. Ocean City Bd. of Adj., 439 N.J. Super. 96 (App. Div. 2015). This opinion by Judge Ostrer, issued last Friday, addresses N.J.S.A. 40:55D-62(a), a provision of the Municipal...

Another Supreme Court Decision on a Certified Question, This Time on the Wage and Hour Law and Wage Payment Law

Hargrove v. Sleepy's, LLC, 220 N.J. 289 (2015). Today, speaking through Judge Cuff, the Supreme Court issued an opinion on a certified question posed to the Court by the Third...

Joint Legal Custody When One Parent Has Moved Abroad

Costa v. Costa, 440 N.J. Super. 1 (App. Div. 2015). This decision today by Judge Leone is a matrimonial appeal. Plaintiff Sandra Costa and defendant Paulo Costa, having married in...

Ascertainability Uber Alles? Not in a (b)(2) Class Action, Says the Third Circuit

Shelton v. Bledsoe, 775 F.3d 554 (3d Cir. 2015). In Carrera v. Bayer Corp., 727 F.3d 300 (3d Cir. 2013), a damages class action under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule...

Is a "Rehabilitation Hospital" a "Nursing Home"?

Bermudez v. Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, 439 N.J. Super. 35 (App. Div. 2015). The different ways in which legislative language, even relatively precise definitions, can be seen to be ambiguous or unclear...

Remittitur, "Feel of the Case," and "Shocks the Conscience"

Mickens v. Misdom, 438 N.J. Super. 531 (App. Div. 2015). Today's opinion, by Judge Fisher, affirms the ruling of a Union County trial judge (apparently, Judge Hely, based on a...

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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."...