CUFF, Judge (temporarily assigned) delivered the opinion of the Court. This matter presents questions of law certified and submitted by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit pursuant to Rule 2:12A-1. We have been asked whether the Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act (TCCWNA or Act), N.J.S.A. 56:12-14 to -18, applies to tangible and intangible property and whether a certificate purchased through an internet marketer for use at restaurants participating in...
Justice LaVECCHIA delivered the opinion of the Court. Plaintiff Valeria Headen is a ten-month employee in the career service in the Jersey City School District (District). The District is subject to the provisions set forth in the New Jersey Civil Service Act, N.J.S.A. 11A:1-1 to :12-6 (Civil Service Act or Act), because it opted to adopt Title 11A, see N.J.S.A. 11A:9-2 to -7 (establishing means by which political subdivisions may become civil service jurisdictions). As a food service...
PER CURIAM. The judgment of the Appellate Division, reported at 419 N.J.Super. 46 , 16 A.3d 386 (2011), is affirmed by an equally divided Court. Justice HOENS, concurring. Plaintiffs T.J.S. and A.L.S. are a married couple who have been unable to have a child together because A.L.S. is not able to carry a pregnancy to term. Desirous of having a child, the couple decided that T.J.S. would contribute sperm that would be used to fertilize the ovum of an anonymous donor. They then entered into...
Judge WEFING (temporarily assigned) delivered the opinion of the Court. Our trial judges are confronted daily with daunting case loads and strained resources. The challenge of hearing these matters and disposing of them appropriately and justly within a reasonable time frame can, at times, appear insurmountable, making it even more difficult to adhere "to the real business of the courts, which is to dispense substantial justice on the merits." Fusco v. Fusco, 186 N.J.Super. 321 , 329, 452...
Justice HOENS delivered the opinion of the Court. More than a decade ago, this Court established the framework for our trial courts to use when deciding whether a confession given by a juvenile in a custodial setting was voluntary and therefore admissible in a delinquency proceeding. See State v. Presha, 163 N.J. 304 , 312-17, 748 A .2d 1108 (2000). Among the wide variety of factors that bear on an evaluation of voluntariness, we considered the role played by a juvenile's parent during...
Justice PATTERSON delivered the opinion of the Court. The Court considers N.J.S.A. 2A:4A-26, which authorizes waiver of family court jurisdiction over the prosecution of juveniles who are fourteen years old or older for certain offenses and referral of those juveniles to adult criminal court, on motion of the prosecutor. N.J.S.A. 2A:4A-26(a). For all such juveniles, waiver into adult court requires a finding by the trial court, after a hearing, that "[t]here is probable cause to believe...
PER CURIAM. In this matter, we consider whether a plaintiff, who was removed from public employment after positing a claim of employer retaliation in a civil service disciplinary proceeding, should be barred from seeking to circumvent that discipline through a subsequent Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA), N.J.S.A. 34:19-1 to -14, action also alleging retaliation. We hold that, under these facts, plaintiff's CEPA action is barred. Plaintiff was terminated from his position...
Justice LaVECCHIA delivered the opinion of the Court. In this appeal we review a decision by a county prosecutor to seek waiver of three juveniles, aged sixteen at the time of their offenses, to adult court for acts of delinquency that, as charged, were equivalent to aggravated assault, robbery, and second-degree conspiracy. A Family Part judge found probable cause that the juveniles committed the offenses but denied the waiver motion. The Appellate Division reversed, concluding that the...
Justice HOENS delivered the opinion of the Court. Plaintiffs Jamie and Rebecca Gannon, asserting that plaintiff Jamie Gannon developed a form of brain cancer because of a series of polio vaccines he was given as a child, pursued various forms of relief in both federal and state courts. In the federal court action, they sought relief from the United States pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. 1346(b), 2671-80, contending that the federal government was negligent in permitting...
Judge WEFING (temporarily assigned) delivered the opinion of the Court. In this appeal, we are called upon to consider the relationship between a search conducted pursuant to a warrant issued under N.J.S.A. 2C:25-28(j), which permits issuance of a warrant upon reasonable cause, and Article I, paragraph 7 of the New Jersey Constitution and the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, both of which state that no warrant may issue "except upon probable cause." Specifically, we must...
Judge CUFF (temporarily assigned) delivered the opinion of the Court. On December 16, 2004, Billie Cornett received a drug-eluting stent to treat coronary artery disease. Five months later, a blood clot formed near the site of the stent and Billie Cornett suffered a subacute stent thrombosis. Eleven days later, he died. On September 15, 2008, his widow, Vonnie Cornett, filed suit in New Jersey seeking damages for the injuries suffered by her husband and his estate. This appeal requires this...
PER CURIAM. We affirm the judgment below, substantially for the reasons expressed in the opinion of the Appellate Division, reported at 418 N.J.Super. 559 , 15 A.3d 22 (2011). We briefly comment to amplify the Appellate Division panel's opinion. Plaintiffs challenge L. 2009, c. 37 ("Chapter 37"), called "Kyleigh's Law," which amended N.J.S.A. 39:3-13, the statute that codifies New Jersey's graduated driver's license system. Chapter 37 requires individuals who are driving pursuant...
HOENS, Justice, delivered the opinion of the Court. In this matter, we are asked to create a common law cause of action that would permit an injured employee, who is separately entitled to receive workers' compensation benefits, to sue his employer's compensation carrier directly for pain and suffering when it results from the carrier's delay in payment for medical treatment, prescriptions, or related services. We decline this invitation to create a new cause of action for three essential...
Justice ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court. The police responded to an unverified 9-1-1 call reporting "a domestic dispute possibly involving a handgun" at a Carteret residence. Outside her apartment, Kamilah Richardson told the police that there was no problem in her home and that her eleven-year-old son was inside alone. Against her will, the police entered the apartment to assure the safety of the young boy. The police found him unharmed, without any visible injuries or signs of...
Judge WEFING (temporarily assigned) delivered the opinion of the Court. In this appeal we are called upon to consider the extent to which the Board of Governors of Rutgers, the State University (University), has complied with the requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), N.J.S.A. 10:4-6 to -21, and, if its compliance has been deficient, the extent to which plaintiff is entitled to a judicial remedy. Plaintiff Francis McGovern is an alumnus of the University who has attended...
Justices LaVECCHIA and ALBIN, and Judge WEFING (temporarily assigned) delivered the opinion of the Court. On June 28, 2011, the Pension and Health Care Benefits Act (Chapter 78) was enacted into law, L. 2011, c. 78 — a law that applies to all public employees, including Supreme Court justices and Superior Court judges then in service. Article VI, Section 6, Paragraph 6 of the New Jersey Constitution provides that justices and judges "shall receive for their services such salaries as may be...
Justice ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court. In this wrongful-death/survival action, the Plainfield Rescue Squad is alleged to have unreasonably — and therefore negligently — delayed the transport of a gunshot victim to a nearby hospital, thereby causing his death. The individual members of the Rescue Squad are not the subject of the civil suit. The only issue before this Court is whether N.J.S.A. 26:2K-29 provides immunity to the Rescue Squad as an entity, regardless of any...
Chief Justice RABNER delivered the opinion of the Court. Millions of adults nationwide have criminal records that affect their reentry into society years after their sentence is complete. Criminal records can present barriers to employment, licensing, and housing, among other things. To afford a second chance to one-time offenders convicted of less serious offenses, who have led law-abiding lives since conviction, the Legislature enacted a law that allows certain records to be expunged after...
Chief Justice RABNER delivered the opinion of the Court. The question raised in this appeal is whether records of a legal clinic at a public law school are subject to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA). The Rutgers Environmental Litigation Clinic (RELC or the Clinic) represented a private group that opposed a plan to build an outlet mall. The mall's developer, Sussex Commons Associates, LLC (Sussex Commons or Sussex), sought documents from its adversary — the Clinic — under OPRA. The trial...
JUSTICE PATTERSON delivered the opinion of the Court. This insurance coverage dispute requires the Court to construe two insurance policies in litigation arising from the illegal harvesting of human remains. Plaintiffs Memorial Properties, LLC (Memorial) and Mount Hebron Cemetery Association (Mt. Hebron) are respectively the manager and owner of Liberty Grove Memorial Gardens (Liberty Grove), a New Jersey cemetery and crematory. Mt. Hebron was sued in 2007 and 2008 in seven lawsuits in the...
