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

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...

Is the Supreme Court Fed Up With COAH?

When last we left the saga of the Council on Affordable Housing ("COAH") and its "third round rules" for the calculation of municipal obligations for low and moderate-income housing, the...

Public Utilities Are Not Exempt From Municipal Regulation

New Jersey Natural Gas Co. v. Borough of Red Bank, 438 N.J. Super. 164 (App. Div. 2014). New Jersey Natural Gas ("NJNG") proposed to remove underground gas regulators located in...

Irwin Kimmelman (1930-2014)

Irwin I. Kimmelman, who served as an Assemblyman in the 1960's, as Attorney General of the State of New Jersey in the Kean administration from 1982-86, and as a judge of...

Another LDG Appellate Division Win

Heine v. City of Paterson, 2014 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 2094 (App. Div. Aug. 26, 2014). This per curiam opinion, issued today by Judges Nugent amd Carroll, affirms a decision of...

The Supreme Court Grants COAH's Motion for an Extension of Time to Promulgate Third Round Rules

Today witnessed the latest event in the ongoing saga regarding third round rules for low and moderate-income housing to be adopted by the Council on Affordable Housing ("COAH"). As discussed...

An Extraordinary Smackdown for COAH

Under Rule 2:8-1(b), motions in the Appellate Division are not normally argued orally. On March 5, however, an Appellate Division panel (Judges Fuentes, Simonelli, and Haas) heard oral argument, at...

Supreme Court Will Review Another Referendum Case

As discussed here, the Supreme Court already has on its docket Tumpson v. Farina, 431 N.J. Super. 164 (App. Div. 2013), which involves a referendum in a Faulkner Act municipality. [Disclosure:...

Residential Development That Includes Mostly Market-Rate Units and Some Affordable Units is Not Inherently Beneficial

Advance at Branchburg, II, LLC v. Branchburg Tp. Bd. of Adj., 433 N.J. Super. 247 (App. Div. 2013). The normal, strict standards for a use variance, as expressed in Medici...

Potential Drainage Issues Do Not Defeat Right to a Variance for Frontage

Ten Stary Dom Partnership v. Mauro, 216 N.J. 16 (2013). Less than two weeks after issuing an opinion about conditional use variances, the Supreme Court today turned to bulk variances...

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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."...