A Notice to the Bar, dated September 1, 2021, was published late yesterday. It is available here. Issued by Judge Messano, the Notice is titled “APPELLATE DIVISION REMINDER TO COUNSEL REGARDING SUBMISSION OF CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS AND OTHER ISSUES CONCERNING CONFIDENTIALITY.” Its purpose is “reminding attorneys about the submission and treatment of confidential material in Appellate Division matters.” The Notice first addresses confidential personal identifiers, noting that Rule 1:38-7, applicable on appeal as well as at the trial level, defines “confidential...

27-35 Jackson Avenue, LLC v. Samsung Fire & Marine Ins. Co., Ltd., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2021). This opinion, issued today and authored by Judge Messano, is the first published Appellate Division of the new Term. It arose from unusual circumstances. Plaintiff owned a commercial building in which the United States General Services Administration (“GSA”) was a tenant. “For no apparent reason,” a sprinkler head in the building discharged water, in such amounts that that floor and the one below were damaged. Due to that occurrence, the GSA terminated its...

The Appellate Division’s calendar for the week of September 13, the first week of the new court Term, has been published and is available here. While it may be too soon to make any judgments about how the Appellate Division will handle appeals this Term, the calendar for that week reveals differences in how panels are dealing with their appeals in the first week of the Term. As discussed here, there are now seven Parts instead of the eight Parts that have been the norm for a number of years. All seven Parts have matters scheduled for the week of September 13. Six of those Parts will...