Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Pierre-Louis Supreme Court Nomination Set for August 24

In a joint announcement, Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and Judiciary Committee Chair Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, revealed that the Judiciary Committee will take up Governor Murphy’s nomination of Fabiana Pierre-Louis as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New ...

Municipal Special Assessment Invalid Where Expert Report on Which it Was Premised Lacked a Rational Basis

Crispino v. Sparta Tp., 243 N.J. 234 (2020). By statute, the Legislature has delegated to municipalities the power to impose special assessments on property owners to fund improvements that benefit those properties. But such assessments, and the methodology to impose ...

Casino Control Act Does Not Preempt Consumer Fraud Claims for Alleged False Advertising of Poker Tournament

Bandler v. Landry’s, Inc., 464 N.J. Super. 311 (App. Div. 2020). Plaintiff, a competitive poker player, saw an advertisement for a “Grand Poker Series” tournament to be held at the Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City. Plaintiff alleged that the ...

Board of Education Lacked MLUL Standing Where Its Challenge to Development Approvals Was Based Only on Potential Increased Crowding of Schools

Edison Bd. of Educ. v. Zoning Bd. of Adj. of Edison., 464 N.J. Super. 298 (2020). This opinion by Judge Messano today affirmed a Law Division ruing that the Edison Board of Education (BOE”), which had filed an action in ...

Entire Controversy Doctrine Does Not Bar Second Case Brought by Party Who, as a Defendant, Defeated a Prior Case for Failure to State a Claim

Bank Leumi USA v. Kloss, 243 N.J. 218 (2020). As discussed here, this was a case involving a certified question from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and for the second time in the last month, Justice Fernandez-Vina wrote the ...

Straight to the Supreme Court for the New Jersey Republican State Committee’s Constitutional Challenge to the New Jersey COVID-19 Emergency Bond Act

On July 16, the New Jersey Republican State Committee and other plaintiffs filed suit against Governor Murphy in the Law Division, Mercer County. The lawsuit asserts that the New Jersey COVID-19 Emergency Bond Act, which was adopted by both Houses ...

Two More for the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted review in two new cases. In one case, the Court granted certification. In the other, there was a dissent in the Appellate Division, but the Supreme Court also granted certification. Each ...

New Jersey Arbitration Act Applies Automatically to Contracts Exempt From Federal Arbitration Act

Arafa v. Health Express Corp., 243 N.J. 147 (2020). Justice Fernandez-Vina’s opinion today actually involved two consolidated cases, both of which were putative class actions. The issue was whether a contract that the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. 1 et ...

Qualified Immunity Denied Based on Dispute About Material Facts

Baskin v. Martinez, 243 N.J. 112 (2020). This Civil Rights Act case involved what Justice Albin, writing for the four-Justice majority, labeled a claim that “a justifiable police chase ended in an unjustifiable police shooting– the use of excessive force ...

No Fair Market Value Credit for Foreclosure Debtors Unless Creditors Pursue a Deficiency Action

West Pleasant-CPGT, Inc. v. U.S. Home Corp., 243 N.J. 92 (2020). [Disclosure: I represented the successful defendant in this appeal]. This unanimous decision by Justice LaVecchia today addressed an equitable remedy that lower courts have made available to foreclosure debtors ...