JUSTICE LaVECCHIA delivered the opinion for the Court. This appeal arises from a citizen request, pursuant to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA or the Act), N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 to -13, and the common law right of access, for essentially a day's worth of video footage from a stationary security camera attached to the second-story rear area of Bloomfield Town Hall, adjacent to the police station. The Township of Bloomfield (Township) declined to release the videotape footage. According to...
JUDGE CUFF (temporarily assigned) delivered the opinion of the Court. In 2010, the Township of Franklin (the Township) adopted an ordinance revising its regulation of signs, including billboards. The ordinance permits billboards, subject to multiple conditions, in a zoning district proximate to an interstate highway but expressly prohibits digital billboards anywhere in the municipality. A company seeking to install a digital billboard challenged the constitutionality of the ordinance....
Justice ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court. While a patron at defendant Sahara Sam's Oasis Water Park, plaintiff Roy Steinberg suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury while participating in a water ride that simulated riding a surfboard. Plaintiff filed a lawsuit against Sahara Sam's Oasis, LLC, alleging that his injuries were caused by its gross negligence and violations of statutory and regulatory provisions of the Carnival-Amusement Rides Safety Act (the Safety Act), N.J.S....
Justice LaVECCHIA delivered the opinion of the Court. New Jersey has a significant body of statutory and decisional law protecting employee rights — protections that exist whether the employee is a union member or not. Among those are wage and hour and whistleblower protections. Facts that can give rise to a violation of those state-law protections can often (for union workers) also give rise to a claim based on a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) or under the National Labor Relations...
Judge CUFF (temporarily assigned) delivered the opinion of the Court. In this appeal, we return to the vexing and recurring issue of whether an affidavit of merit submitted by a plaintiff in an action alleging negligence by a licensed professional satisfies the requirements of the Affidavit of Merit statute (AOM statute), N.J.S.A. 2A:53A-26 to -29. Plaintiff sought treatment for sleep apnea from an orthodontist. Plaintiff used the appliance given to him for treatment but complained that...
Justice SOLOMON delivered the opinion of the Court. In this appeal, we are called upon to determine whether rain water damage caused by a subcontractor's faulty workmanship constitutes "property damage" and an "occurrence" under a property developer's commercial general liability ("CGL") insurance policy. 1 Here, a condominium association sued its developer/general contractor for damage to the interior structure, residential units, and common areas of the condominium complex, which...
Justice LaVECCHIA delivered the opinion of the Court. At issue in this appeal is the validity of a third party's consent to search an adult household member's bedroom. The trial court denied defendant's motion to suppress the evidence seized as a result of the warrantless search; however, the Appellate Division reversed, concluding that the on-the-scene law enforcement officer had not obtained a valid authorization to enter and inspect items in defendant's bedroom and interior closet. We...
Chief Justice RABNER delivered the opinion of the Court. For more than three decades, this Court has departed from federal law and recognized that, under the New Jersey Constitution, individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy in information they provide to phone companies, banks, and Internet service providers in order to use commercial services. The Court has consistently applied that principle to protect personal information from unrestricted government access. No party in...
Chief Justice RABNER delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal raises a question of first impression: whether an indigent parent who faces termination of her parental rights in a contested private adoption proceeding has a right to appointed counsel. Our culture and legal system both embrace the right to raise one's child. That fundamental right is forever terminated when a child is adopted by another family. Under the law, indigent parents have a right to counsel when the State...
Justice LaVECCHIA delivered the opinion of the Court. This matter presents a question of law certified and submitted to this Court by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit pursuant to Rule 2:12A-1. The question relates to this Court's earlier opinion in Olivo v. Owens-Illinois, Inc., 186 N.J. 394 , 895 A.2d 1143 (2006). The issue in Olivo was "whether a landowner can be liable for injuries allegedly caused from asbestos exposure experienced by the wife of a...
Justice ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court. New Jersey provides a broad range of discovery to an accused in a criminal case under Rule 3:13-3. This open-file approach is intended to ensure fair and just trials. Here, the issue is not whether defendants have a right to discovery of the prosecutor's file in their case, but whether they have a right to discovery of the files in unrelated cases involving the same cooperating witness. The cooperating witness (the Witness) in...
Judge CUFF (temporarily assigned) delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal addresses the scope of the marital status protection afforded to employees by the Law Against Discrimination (LAD), N.J.S.A. 10:5-1 to -42. In this appeal, plaintiff Robert Smith was terminated from his position as operations director of a rescue squad soon after he revealed that he and his co-employee wife were separated, would not reconcile, and were about to initiate divorce proceedings. We hold, as did...
Justice LaVECCHIA delivered the opinion of the Court. In this appeal we address whether the Law Against Discrimination (LAD), N.J.S.A. 10:5-1 to -49 — a law established to fulfill a public — interest purpose — can be contravened by private agreement. Here an employment application contained a provision requiring the applicant, if hired, to agree to bring any employment-related cause of action against the employer within six months of the challenged employment action and waive any...
Justice LaVECCHIA delivered the opinion of the Court. Part of comprehensive pension reform legislation, Chapter 78 of the Laws of 2011 suspended State pension cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). L. 2011, c. 78. In this appeal, we consider whether that suspension contravened a term of the contract right granted under the earlier enacted "non-forfeitable right" statute. See L. 1997, c. 113 (presently codified as N.J.S.A. 43:3C-9.5). Qualifying members of the State's public...
Justice PATTERSON delivered the opinion of the Court. In this appeal, arising from a judgment in plaintiff's favor in a motor vehicle negligence case, we consider defendants' contention that the trial court committed several errors that mandate reversal of the judgment and a new trial. Plaintiff Sofia Torres alleged that she was seriously injured in a rear-end collision between her car and a garbage truck owned by defendant Suburban Disposal, Inc. (Suburban) and operated by defendant...
Judge CUFF (temporarily assigned) delivered the opinion of the Court. The Court granted leave to appeal to consider whether the State may introduce in defendant's trial for sexual assault evidence of a prior sexual assault of which defendant was acquitted. Defendant, a massage therapist, was charged with sexually assaulting a customer while giving her a massage. Prior to defendant's trial, the State moved to admit evidence that defendant had committed a similar sexual assault while...
Judge CUFF (temporarily assigned) delivered the opinion of the Court. In this appeal, we consider whether a defendant is entitled to a jury trial when facing a third or subsequent driving while intoxicated (DWI) charge pursuant to N.J.S.A. 39:4-50. This Court previously answered that question in the negative, over twenty-five years ago, in State v. Hamm, 121 N.J. 109 , 130, 577 A.2d 1259 (1990), cert. denied, 499 U.S. 947, 111 S.Ct. 1413, 113 L.Ed. 2d 466 (1991). Since then,...
PER CURIAM . Respondent, Frank J. Cozzarelli, was recommended for disbarment in a decision by the Disciplinary Review Board (DRB). On the return date of an Order to Show Cause issued by this Court as to why he should not be disbarred for the knowing misappropriation of client and escrow funds, respondent contended that he presented mental illness evidence that had not received proper consideration by the DRB, under In re Jacob, 95 N.J. 132 , 469 A.2d 498 (1984). Because we were...
Justice PATTERSON delivered the opinion of the Court. In this appeal, we consider whether a plaintiff employee may rely on the testimony of a treating physician, who has not been designated as an expert witness, to demonstrate a disability in her discrimination claim under the Law Against Discrimination (LAD), N.J.S.A. 10:5-1 to -42. Plaintiff Patricia A. Delvecchio was employed by the Township of Bridgewater (Township) as a police dispatcher for the Township's Police Department (...
Justice SOLOMON delivered the opinion of the Court. Plaintiff Peter Innes and his wife, Maria Jose Carrascosa, were involved in a contentious divorce and custody battle over their daughter Victoria. During the course of their domestic relations litigation, the parties entered into an agreement whereby Carrascosa's attorneys would hold Victoria's United States and Spanish passports in trust to restrict travel outside of the United States with Victoria without written permission of the...
