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...
JUSTICE ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court. Today, the Internet plays an essential role in the daily lives of most people — in how they communicate, access news, purchase goods, seek employment, perform their jobs, enjoy entertainment, and function in countless other ways. Sex offenders on community supervision for life (CSL) may be subject to restrictive Internet conditions at the discretion of the New Jersey State Parole Board (the Parole Board), provided the conditions promote...
CHIEF JUSTICE RABNER delivered the opinion of the Court. A municipal court judge convicted a motorist of driving while intoxicated (DWI) and suspended his license for seven months. The court granted the driver's request to stay his suspension while he pursued a new trial in Superior Court. The driver was convicted again before a Law Division judge and sought another stay of his sentence pending appeal to the Appellate Division. We now address the appropriate standards for a stay of a...
PER CURIAM The judgment of the Appellate Division is affirmed, substantially for the reasons expressed in Judge Nugent's opinion of the Appellate Division reported at 441 N.J.Super. 403 , 119 A.3d 241 (App. Div. 2015). CHIEF JUSTICE RABNER and JUSTICES LaVECCHIA, ALBIN, PATTERSON, FERNANDEZ-VINA, and TIMPONE join in this opinion. JUSTICE SOLOMON did not participate.
JUSTICE LaVECCHIA delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal requires us to settle whether this state adheres to the rule that an anti-assignment clause in an insurance policy may not bar the assignment of a post-loss claim even though the claim has not been reduced to a money judgment. An overwhelming number of jurisdictions around the country accept the legal rule voiding restrictions on post-loss claim assignments. The principle has been described as venerable and supportive of...
JUSTICE LaVECCHIA delivered the opinion of the Court. For the last sixteen years, while the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) failed to promulgate viable rules creating a realistic opportunity for the construction of low- and moderate-income housing in municipalities, the Mount Laurel constitutional affordable housing obligation 1 did not go away. Municipal responsibility for a fair share of the affordable housing need of low- and moderate-income households formed during that...
CHIEF JUSTICE RABNER delivered the opinion of the Court. The defendants in these appeals committed very serious, violent crimes when they were juveniles. One is serving a sentence of 110 years' imprisonment and will not be eligible for parole until he spends 55 years in jail. At that time, he would be about 72 years old. The second is serving a 75-year term and is ineligible for parole until he serves 68 years and 3 months in jail. He would be 85 years old then. Because of their young age...
