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

Party That Filed Multiple Motions in Court Waived Arbitration Clause

Bellevue Drug Co. v. Caremark SPCS, 700 F.3d 109 (3d Cir. 2012). This was an antitrust class action. Plaintiffs, who are retail pharmacy businesses, and defendant, who is a prescription benefits manager for...

Tea Party Challenge to District Map Fails

Gonzalez v. State of New Jersey Apportionment Comm'n, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2012). The Tea Party has had little electoral success in New Jersey. Its efforts to achieve...

Seatbelt Law is Intended to Protect Public Health and Safety and Can be Used as a Predicate for Conviction of a Serious Crime

State v. Lenihan, 427 N.J. Super. 499 (App. Div. 2012). Would it not seem "obvious" that N.J.S.A. 39:3-76.2f, New Jersey's "seatbelt law," is intended to protect the public health and...

No Emotional Distress Damages for Witnessing Death of Pet

McDougall v. Lamm, 211 N.J. 203 (2012). In Portee v. Jaffee, 84 N.J. 88 (1980), the Supreme Court established limited circumstances under which a person who observes the negligently-caused death...

DePascale v. New Jersey: The Supreme Court Speaks

DePascale v. State of New Jersey, 211 N.J. 40 (2012). Article VI, section 6, paragraph 6 of the New Jersey Constitution states that "[t]he Justices of the Supreme Court and...

Foreign Citizen Whose Admission to the United States Limits Him to a Single Employer is Not "Available for Work" and Eligible for Unemployment Benefits When That Employer Discharges Him

Makutoff v. Board of Review, 427 N.J. Super. 218 (App. Div. 2012). Plaintiff, a Canadian citizen, was employed in this country under a limited work authorization issued by the Department...

Sales Taxes Under the Bankruptcy Code: A Fascinating, and Difficult, Issue of Statutory Interpretation

In re Michael Calabrese, Jr., 689 F.3d 312 (3d Cir. 2012). Most issues of statutory interpretation can be resolved either by the plain language of the statute, by an analysis of...

Mass Tort Defendants May Retain as Experts Doctors Who Treated Patient-Plaintiffs, But Those Doctors Cannot be Involved in the Cases of Those Same Patient-Plaintiffs

In re Pelvic Mesh-Gynecare Litig., 426 N.J. Super. 167 (App. Div. 2012). In this mass tort matter involving medical devices that are used to treat pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence, the...

Wrongful Death Act Claim for Estate Tax Impact of Premature Death May Go Forward

Beim v. Hulfish, 427 N.J. Super. 560 (App. Div. 2012). The first paragraph of this very interesting opinion by Judge Harris, in an auto accident case, well encapsulates the novel issue presented:...

"Presumed Damages" Doctrine Remains Viable in Defamation Cases Involving Purely Private Plaintiffs

W.J.A. v. D.A., 210 N.J. 229 (2012) (later-issued corrected opinion appears here). The doctrine of "presumed damages" allows plaintiffs in defamation cases to obtain damages even without a showing of actual harm...

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The Supreme Court Takes Up a Paramedics Immunity Case

The Supreme Court announced late yesterday that it has granted certification in Almonte v. Township of Union. The question presented, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk's office, is "Under the circumstances presented, are the paramedics entitled to immunity because they provided advanced life support services "in accordance with this act" as required by N.J.S.A. 26:2K-14, specifically, N.J.S.A. 26:2K-10(a), which requires that the paramedic "maintains direct voice communication with and is taking orders from a licensed physician or physician directed registered professional nurse"?...

Three Big Decisions From the Supreme Court

Last week was an eventful one in the Supreme Court. The Court ruled in three appeals, all in closely watched cases. They are summarized here in reverse chronological order....

Two OPRA Cases and a Municipal Land Use Law Case for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in three new matters. All three involve grants of certification, but one also is an appeal as of right due to a relatively rare dissent in the Appellate Division....

The Third Circuit Returns to New Jersey Appellate Law Blog

When this blog began, in October 2010, it covered goings-on in the Supreme Court of New Jersey, the Appellate Division, and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, with occasional posts about the Supreme Court of the United States. That continued for many years. More recently, however, it became too difficult to keep up with all of those three courts, and coverage of the Third Circuit disappeared virtually entirely. But since the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division have not published many decisions recently (a circumstance that is certain to change shortly), this blog will resume covering the Third Circuit at least on occasion, beginning today....