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

Work Product Doctrine and Common Interest Privilege Exempt Documents From Disclosure Under OPRA or Common Law Right of Access

O'Boyle v. Borough of Longport, 426 N.J. Super. 1 (App. Div. 2012). This is yet another Open Public Records Act ("OPRA") case. Plaintiff was a frequent antagonist of the defendant Borough, hostility...

Attorney Charging Lien Subordinated to Interest of Preserving Funds for Children's Education

Sauro v. Sauro, 425 N.J. Super. 555 (App. Div. 2012). This contentious divorce action boiled down to the complaint of a large law firm that an equitable distribution award was improper because, in making...

Cap on Sick Leave Payments to School Administrators Upheld

New Jersey Ass'n of School Adminstrators v. Schundler, 211 N.J. 535 (2012). This case required the Supreme Court to parse and reconcile an unusually complex scheme of statutes and regulations that dealt...

An Important Decision Under the Evidence Rules

Konop v. Rosen, 425 N.J. Super. 391 (App. Div. 2012). Trial lawyers and appellate lawyers take heed! The Appellate Division, speaking through an encyclopedic opinion by Judge Messano, has issued one of...

Relation Back and Other Statute of Limitations Issues

Walker v. Choudhary, 425 N.J. Super. 135 (App. Div. 2012). This was a medical malpractice and wrongful death action. Three defendants, a doctor, a medical group, and a company that owns a...

"Justifiable Reliance" for Purposes of a Fraud Claim

Walid v. Yolanda for Irene Couture, Inc.., 425 N.J. Super. 171 (App. Div. 2012). It is elemental that "justifiable reliance" on an allegedly fraudulent mispresentation is necessary to make out a fraud...

Law of the Case Doctrine Applied in a Complex Class Action

Little v. Kia Motors America, Inc., 425 N.J. Super. 82 (App. Div. 2012). In this consumer class action, which involved alleged defects in Kia automobiles, Judge #1 presided over a classwide jury trial. The...

A Wise Decision on Class Arbitration

Sutter v. Oxford Health Plans, LLC, 675 F.3d 215 (3d Cir. 2012). Decisions in favor of class arbitration may seem to be few and far between these days. But in this case,...

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...

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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."...