Judge WEFING (temporarily assigned) delivered the opinion of the Court. In 1981, the New Jersey Legislature, convinced that "the existence of organized crime and organized crime type activities presents a serious threat to the political, social and economic institutions of this State," N.J.S.A. 2C:41-1.1, adopted N.J.S.A. 2C:41-1 to -6.2, New Jersey's counterpart to the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. 1961-1968. In this appeal, we are...
Justice PATTERSON delivered the opinion of the Court. The New Jersey Tort Claims Act, N.J.S.A. 59:1-1 to 13-10, imposes strict requirements upon litigants seeking to file claims against public entities. Under N.J.S.A. 59:8-8, a claimant must file a notice of claim upon a public entity or public employee "not later than the ninetieth day after accrual of the cause of action." N.J.S.A. 59:8-8. The Legislature, however, has created a mechanism for obtaining discretionary relief from the...
Justice PATTERSON delivered the opinion of the Court. The Court considers N.J.S.A. 39:4-88(b), which provides that on a roadway "divided into clearly marked lanes for traffic," a motor vehicle "shall be driven as nearly as practicable entirely within a single lane and shall not be moved from that lane until the driver has first ascertained that the movement can be made with safety." N.J.S.A. 39:4-88(b). The issue in this case is whether the first and second clauses of N.J.S.A. 39:4-88(b)...
PER CURIAM. The judgment of the Appellate Division is affirmed, substantially for the reasons expressed in Judge Messano's opinion of the Appellate Division reported at 416 N.J.Super. 248 , 3 A.3d 1229 (2010). For affirmance —Chief Justice RABNER, and Justices LONG, LaVECCHIA, ALBIN, HOENS, and PATTERSON—6. Opposed —None. Not Participating —Judge WEFING (temporarily assigned)—1.
On this appeal we are asked to revisit the term "exoneration" as used in our decision in McKnight v. Office of the Public Defender, 197 N.J. 180 , 962 A.2d 482 (2008), to determine the timeliness of a legal malpractice action based on representation in a criminal matter. In 1999, defendant was convicted of various drug offenses. In October 2007, on appeal from the denial of post-conviction relief (PCR), his conviction was reversed by the Appellate Division based on ineffective assistance...
Justice ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court. Plaintiff Blanca Gonzalez pledged as collateral the home she jointly owned with Monserate Diaz to secure a loan he obtained from Cityscape Mortgage Corporation. Diaz died, and afterwards plaintiff began making the necessary mortgage payments to the then holder of the loan, defendant U.S. Bank Association. When plaintiff fell behind in making timely payments, the bank secured a foreclosure judgment. The defendant servicing agent for the bank...
Justice ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case, a mother brought a survival and wrongful death action on behalf of the estate of her son, an uninsured motorist who was killed by the alleged negligence of another driver. The other driver and his employer (defendants) claimed that the lawsuit was barred by N.J.S.A. 39:6A-4.5(a). That statute provides that any person who fails to maintain statutorily required no-fault insurance "shall have no cause of action for recovery of...
Justice LONG delivered the opinion of the Court. At the center of this appeal is a straightforward legal question: whether the trial judge properly granted summary judgment to the moving defendants in this action for breach of contract, fraud, misrepresentation, and conspiracy, arising out of a real estate transaction. Unfortunately, that legal question emerges out of what can best be characterized as a procedural swamp. The trial judge granted summary judgment to five of the seven defendants...
PER CURIAM. Following separate hearings on July 22, 2010, the District V-A Fee Arbitration Committee (Committee) issued awards to three former clients of respondent Gerald M. Saluti, Esq. Saluti was ordered to pay the awards by three dates in November 2010. He did not do so. On January 3, 2011, the Office of Attorney Ethics (OAE) moved for Saluti's temporary suspension and the imposition of fines for each infraction because his obligations pursuant to the three awards were still outstanding....
Chief Justice RABNER delivered the opinion of the Court. Table of Contents I. Introduction .............................................................. 877 II. Facts and Procedural History .............................................. 879 A. Facts .................................................................. 879 B. Photo Identification and Wade Hearing .................................. 880 C. Trial .................................................................. 882 D....
Chief Justice RABNER delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case, we consider whether suggestive behavior by a private party, without any state action, should be evaluated at a pretrial hearing to determine whether an eyewitness' identification may be admitted at trial. Here, a husband suspected that his wife had been attacked by his ex-girlfriend. He showed his wife pictures of the woman to help her make an identification, and she then reviewed the photos many times. Afterward, the...
Justice ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court. The New Jersey State League of Municipalities (League) is a nonprofit, unincorporated association created pursuant to statutory authority, N.J.S.A. 40:48-22. The League represents all 566 of New Jersey's municipalities. The League's governing board consists of various elected municipal officials, its budget is partly financed through public funds, and its employees are members of the Public Employees' Retirement System. Part of the League's...
Justice ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court. In the early stages of a medical malpractice action, a plaintiff must provide an affidavit from an equivalently credentialed physician attesting "that there exists a reasonable probability that the" defendant physician's treatment "fell outside acceptable professional" standards. See N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-27. Under the Affidavit of Merit statute, N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-26 to -29, the failure to file an appropriate affidavit within the statutory time...
Justice HOENS delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal began as a dispute between two corporations that had been doing business with each other for more than fifteen years. At the outset, it was a rather ordinary claim by one, a seller, that the other, a buyer, had failed to pay for goods and supplies that had been sold and delivered, and it therefore was commenced as a book account. The matter became far more complicated, however, when the buyer interposed a counterclaim asserting that...
Justice HOENS delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal involves two related questions that require us to consider the grounds for imposing individual liability based upon a violation of the Consumer Fraud Act (CFA), N.J.S.A. 56:8-1 to -20. The first question concerns the interplay between CFA claims brought against corporate entities and individual employees or officers who are also named as defendants. More specifically, we consider whether, and under what circumstances, the owners...
Judge CARCHMAN (temporarily assigned) delivered the opinion of the Court. Following years of contentious litigation and after months of mediator-assisted negotiations, plaintiff Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission (PVSC) 1 and Spectraserv, Inc. (Spectraserv), without a concession of fault by either party, entered into a settlement agreement providing for the transfer of assets and other consideration from PVSC to Spectraserv. Rather than advance monies to Spectraserv, PVSC agreed, among other...
Justice LONG delivered the opinion of the Court. The question presented on this appeal is whether a Portee 1 claim that does not allege physical sequelae triggers the duty to defend under a "bodily injury" provision in a commercial general liability insurance policy. In Voorhees v. Preferred Mutual Insurance Co., 128 N.J. 165 , 607 A.2d 1255 (1992), we held that a "bodily injury" provision affords coverage for an emotional distress claim accompanied by physical manifestations. Id. at...
Justice HOENS delivered the opinion of the Court. In this appeal, we consider the scope and application of two of the provisions of the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 to -13, that create exemptions applicable to the more general requirement that government records be disclosed. The first of those provisions exempts from disclosure government records that have been deemed to be confidential by a court order, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1. As to that exemption, we are called upon to...
PER CURIAM. The judgment of the Appellate Division is reversed, and the case is remanded to the Law Division (1) for the entry of an order (a) vacating the entire award of 2,145 days of gap-time credits originally granted on September 18, 2009 and (b) remanding defendant L.H. to serve the sentence imposed on that date without any credit for gap time; and (2) for the entry of a corrected judgment of conviction reflecting no days of gap-time credit. JUSTICE LONG, concurring. I am in agreement...
Justice RIVERA-SOTO delivered the opinion of the Court. Rova Farms Resort, Inc. v. Investors Insurance Co. of America, 65 N.J. 474 , 323 A.2d 495 (1974), recognized a cause of action against an insurer in those instances where certain circumstances coalesce: where there is a settlement demand within the policy limits, the insurer in bad faith refuses to settle the claim, and the verdict above the policy limits is returned. In that defined setting, the carrier's bad faith failure to settle...
