In the last several weeks, this blog has largely focused on Supreme Court decisions and grants of review. That was not meant to slight the Appellate Division, whose judges have made some important rulings as well. Here are summaries of some of the most significant published rulings of the Appellate Division during that period: Sosa v. Massachusetts Bay Ins. Co., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2019). In an opinion by Judge Ostrer that focused on the language and effect of a water damage exclusion in the subject homeowner’s insurance policy, the Appellate Division reversed a summary...

Zahl v. Eastland, 2019 WL 2025237 (App. Div. May 8, 2019). [Disclosure: I argued this appeal for the successful defendants-appellants, having come into the case after the Law Division entered judgment against defendants]. This was a legal malpractice case in which the Law Division entered a default judgment against defendants of over $1,057,000. Defendants appealed, and today the Appellate Division (Judges Messano and Fasciale) reversed in an unpublished opinion. The panel adopted defendants’ characterization of the proceedings that led to the default judgment as a “train...

The summer schedule for the Appellate Division was announced late yesterday.  The Order of Chief Justice Rabner that contains the full schedule is available here. “Summer” (a term not actually used in the Order) in the Appellate Division begins on June 17 and ends on September 8.  That period is divided into six “sessions.”  Each session lasts for two weeks.  Sessions 1 and 2, from June 17-30 and July 1-14, respectively, have three Parts, while the remaining sessions have two Parts each.  All of the Parts consist of two judges except for Part Q, which will sit during...