The Appellate Division affirmed preclusion of a net-opinion accounting expert and summary judgment in a multi-defendant LLC dispute, but reversed a $91,894 attorney’s fee award because neither the trial court nor defendants identified a contractual, statutory, or court-rule basis for the award under New Jersey’s American Rule.
The Appellate Division vacated a trial court order enforcing an employment discrimination settlement and awarding attorney’s fees, holding the court failed to address its post-dismissal jurisdiction and provided no legal basis for departing from New Jersey’s American Rule on fee shifting.
The Appellate Division upheld a full forensic cell phone search warrant in a Morris County narcotics and CSAM prosecution, finding the supporting affidavit sufficiently particularized under Missak, and affirmed the plain-view doctrine as the basis for a second CSAM-specific warrant.
The Appellate Division reversed summary judgment for Galaxy Towers Condominium Association in a lawsuit by a trash collector who lost a leg when struck by a car while unloading dumpsters on an adjacent street, holding that the Hopkins four-factor duty test — particularly the complex’s role in initiating the dangerous pickup location change — could support imposing a duty of care even though the injury occurred on a public roadway.
The Appellate Division reversed the denial of John DeRosa’s second PCR petition because the trial court issued only a two-sentence order that failed to provide the findings of fact and conclusions of law required by Rule 3:22-11, and entirely omitted any analysis of his Rule 3:9-1(f) due process claim.
The Appellate Division affirmed the invalidation of Winslow Township’s 2024 mobile home park rent-control ordinance, holding it was arbitrary and capricious because the factual findings in its Purpose section were unsupported by the Council’s record, and that a subsequent state statute highlighting the ordinance’s missing procedural safeguards further confirmed — rather than cured — its constitutional deficiencies.
The Appellate Division affirmed a forty-year sentence for aggravated sexual assault of a child, finding that two acknowledged Miranda violations — a pre-warning substantive question and failure to clarify an ambiguous request for counsel — were each harmless beyond a reasonable doubt given overwhelming DNA evidence.
The Appellate Division affirmed a $173,000 jury verdict against NJ American Water after a black oak tree on its property fell during a 2020 derecho storm and destroyed plaintiff’s home, rejecting challenges to evidentiary rulings, jury instructions, and the denial of additur.
The Appellate Division reversed the dismissal of a self-represented plaintiff’s Consumer Fraud Act complaint against a car dealer/mechanic who allegedly misrepresented a vehicle’s condition, holding that the trial court abused its discretion by dismissing without finding plaintiff’s absence was willful or contumacious rather than a brief, medically necessary restroom break.
The Appellate Division affirmed that a New Jersey intrastate bus accident is governed by N.J.S.A. 48:4-47’s $25,000 per-occurrence financial responsibility minimum — not the federal $5,000,000 limit under 49 C.F.R. 387.33 — and upheld an Approved Driver Endorsement limiting coverage for a non-qualifying driver to that statutory floor.