JUSTICE PATTERSON delivered the opinion of the Court. Pursuant to the Comparative Negligence Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1 to -5.8, and the Joint Tortfeasors Contribution Law, N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-1 to -5, a defendant may seek the allocation of a percentage of fault to a codefendant with whom the plaintiff has settled. Krzykalski v. Tindall , 232 N.J. 525 , 534-37, 181 A.3d 981 (2018); Young v. Latta , 123 N.J. 584 , 593-96, 589 A.2d 1020 (1991). If the factfinder assigns a percentage of...
JUSTICE PATTERSON delivered the opinion of the Court. The entire controversy doctrine "seeks to impel litigants to consolidate their claims arising from a single controversy whenever possible." Thornton v. Potamkin Chevrolet , 94 N.J. 1 , 5, 462 A.2d 133 (1983) (quoting Alfone v. Sarno , 87 N.J. 99 , 113, 432 A.2d 857 (1981) (internal quotation marks omitted) ). The doctrine serves "to encourage complete and final dispositions through the avoidance of piecemeal decisions and to...
JUSTICE FERNANDEZ-VINA delivered the opinion of the Court. Lieutenant John Kaminskas and Chief Daniel Vaniska, who were both members of the Union County Police Department, requested defense and indemnification by the Office of the Attorney General (Attorney General) in a civil action brought against them for alleged investigatory and prosecutorial misconduct. The Attorney General denied their request on the basis that it is a county's duty, under N.J.S.A. 40A:14-117, to defend and...
JUSTICE LaVECCHIA delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal raises substantive and procedural issues about the immunity from local zoning laws and regulation that Rutgers v. Piluso , 60 N.J. 142 , 286 A.2d 697 (1972), recognized for a state university with respect to improvements on state-owned land. Case law recognizes that a state higher educational institution like MSU, statutorily vested with control over its property, see N.J.S.A. 18A:64-7, has a form of immunity, or...
JUSTICE LaVECCHIA delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal involves questions about the insurance coverage available to defendant Honeywell International, Inc. (Honeywell), a New Jersey based corporation, for thousands of bodily-injury claims premised on exposure to brake and clutch pads (friction products) containing asbestos. We granted certification to address two issues. First, we consider whether the law of New Jersey or Michigan (the headquarters location of Honeywell's...
JUSTICE LaVECCHIA delivered the opinion of the Court. With the enactment of the Open Public Meetings Act (the OPMA or the Act), L. 1975, c. 231 (codified at N.J.S.A. 10:4-6 to -21), the Legislature established procedures governing the conduct of meetings of public bodies. The Act makes explicit the legislative intent to ensure the public's right to be present at public meetings and to witness government in action. N.J.S.A. 10:4-7. That legislative intent is balanced by an express...
CHIEF JUSTICE RABNER delivered the opinion of the Court. The Criminal Justice Reform Act (CJRA) provides that defendants "shall be afforded an opportunity ... to present witnesses" at pretrial detention hearings. N.J.S.A. 2A:162-19(e)(1). In this appeal, we consider whether the provision allows a defendant to compel an adverse witness to testify at a detention hearing. We find that the CJRA — like the federal and D.C. laws on which it is based in part — provides defendants a qualified...
JUSTICE ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court. Juveniles adjudicated delinquent of certain sex offenses are barred for life from seeking relief from the registration and community notification provisions of Megan's Law. N.J.S.A. 2C:7-1 to -11, -19; N.J.S.A. 2C:7-2(g). That categorical lifetime bar cannot be lifted, even when the juvenile becomes an adult and poses no public safety risk, is fully rehabilitated, and is a fully productive member of society. Defendant C.K. was...
CHIEF JUSTICE RABNER delivered the opinion of the Court. From 2012 to 2015, Morris County awarded $4.6 million in taxpayer funds to repair twelve churches, as part of a historic preservation program. This appeal raises two questions: whether the grant program violated the Religious Aid Clause of the New Jersey Constitution and, if so, whether the Religious Aid Clause conflicts with the Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution. The Religious Aid Clause has been a part of New...
JUSTICE PATTERSON delivered the opinion of the Court. In this appeal, the Court considers an employee's agreement at the inception of his employment to prospectively waive third-party claims against his employer's customers, in the event that he were to sustain injuries in a workplace accident at a customer's facility. Plaintiff Philip Vitale was hired by Allied Barton Security Services (Allied Barton) as a security guard. When it hired Vitale, Allied Barton required him to execute an...
JUSTICE SOLOMON delivered the opinion of the Court. We are asked to decide whether, after a public entity denies a citizen's record request, the New Jersey Open Public Records Act (OPRA), N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 to -13, and the common law right of access preclude the public entity from instituting a proceeding under the Declaratory Judgment Act (DJA), N.J.S.A. 2A:16-50 to -62. We also decide whether the records sought in this case — financial relief checks that the New Jersey Firemen's...
JUSTICE SOLOMON delivered the opinion of the Court. We are called upon to determine whether the parties to the specific collective negotiations agreements (CNAs) at issue in this case were required to continue scheduled salary increases during the period between the expiration of those contracts and the formation of their successor agreements. This appeal involves the CNAs between (1) Atlantic County and the Fraternal Order of Police, Atlantic Lodge #34 (FOP Lodge 34); (2) Atlantic...
JUSTICE ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court. In November 2008, following the collapse of the housing market, this Court implemented a statewide Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program to address the economic crisis that left many of our citizens facing the loss of their homes. The primary goal of the Mediation Program was to provide a neutral forum where homeowners and lenders could attempt to reach mutually agreeable terms for restructuring loans to avoid foreclosures....
JUSTICE LaVECCHIA delivered the opinion of the Court. This case involves a tort claim against a municipality that was dismissed for failure to comply with the Tort Claims Act requirement that a public-entity defendant be served with a notice of claim "not later than the 90th day after accrual of the cause of action." N.J.S.A. 59:8-8. At issue is whether accrual of plaintiffs' claim against the public-entity defendant should have been tolled in accordance with the discovery rule. In...
Judge FISHER (temporarily assigned) delivered the opinion of the Court. Defendant Horizon Healthcare Services, Inc., New Jersey's largest health insurer, maintains a two-tiered provider-hospital system known as OMNIA approved by the Department of Banking and Insurance. Capital Health Sys., Inc. v. Dep't of Banking & Ins., 445 N.J.Super. 522 , 532, 139 A.3d 134 (App. Div. 2016). Plaintiff Saint Peter's University Hospital, Inc., and plaintiff Capital Health System, Inc. and others,...
CHIEF JUSTICE RABNER delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal explores the scope of two exceptions in the Open Public Records Act (OPRA): exemptions for criminal investigatory records, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1, and records of investigations in progress, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-3. The matter also implicates the common law right of access. The case arises out of a high-speed chase in which a suspect eluded the police, crashed into a guardrail, and reportedly placed officers in danger as he...
CHIEF JUSTICE RABNER delivered the opinion of the Court. In this appeal, we consider the newly enacted Criminal Justice Reform Act for the first time and address the type and scope of discovery the State must provide when it seeks to detain a defendant pretrial. The new law changed the landscape of the State's criminal justice system relating to pretrial release. The statute marked a shift away from heavy reliance on monetary bail. Judges now have the authority to detain defendants prior...
JUSTICE FERNANDEZ-VINA delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioners L.A., R.L., and W.M. (parolees) challenge the constitutionality of the practices of the New Jersey State Parole Board (Parole Board) in administering polygraph examinations to sex offenders serving either parole supervision for life (PSL) or community supervision for life (CSL) sentences pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2C:43-6.4. The parolees are all convicted sex offenders who have been released into the community subject to...
JUSTICE SOLOMON delivered the opinion of the Court. In 1983, this Court affirmed a final consent judgment for a settlement agreement between the New Jersey State Bar Association and the New Jersey Association of Realtor Boards. New Jersey State Bar Ass'n v. New Jersey Ass'n of Realtor Boards (Bar Ass'n), 93 N.J. 470 , 476-77, 461 A.2d 1112 , modified, 94 N.J. 449 , 467 A.2d 577 (1983). The terms of the settlement provide that real estate brokers and salespersons may prepare...
JUSTICE PATTERSON delivered the opinion of the Court. The Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (UFTA), N.J.S.A. 25:2-20 to -34, provides that a transfer made by a debtor is constructively fraudulent as to a creditor whose claim arose before the transfer was made, if the debtor made the transfer without receiving "reasonably equivalent value" in exchange for the transfer and the debtor was insolvent at that time or became insolvent as a result of the transfer. N.J.S.A. 25:2-27(a). In order...
