Mac Property Group, LLC v. Selective Fire & Cas. Ins. Co. , ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2022). [Disclosure: I am counsel for insureds in another appeal regarding the issue of insurance coverage for business interruptions caused by COVID-19, though on different alleged facts and with different policy language]. As Judge Sumners noted at the start of his opinion for the Appellate Division in the six back-to-back appeals in this case, those cases present “an issue of first impression––whether in the context of Rule 4:6-2(e) motions to dismiss with prejudice, insurance policies...

Chief Justice Rabner announced that Judges Berdote Byrne, Bishop-Thompson, and Marczyk have each been temporarily assigned to the Appellate Division, effective August 1, 2022. There is no end date for those temporary assignment in the Chief Justice’s Orders. Each of those judges had previously been temporarily assigned to the Appellate Division from March 14, 2022-May 23, 2022, as discussed here. Presumably, the 2022-23 General Assignment Order will assign each of these three judges to a particular Appellate Division...

Bryant v. County of Cumberland, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2022). In what may be the shortest published opinion of the current Term, Judge Fisher today addressed this “matter of first impression”: whether “service of a Tort Claims Act notice of claim on a county is sufficient when sent to the county clerk rather than the board of county commissioners.” The Law Division found the notice insufficient, but the Appellate Division reversed that ruling. Judge Fisher observed that “N.J.S.A. 59:8-7 is specific about how to serve the State, calling for its submission...