Pisack v. B&C Towing, Inc., ___ N.J. ___ (2020). This matter involved multiple consolidated consumer class actions challenging the fees charged by the defendant towing companies, which towed plaintiffs’ vehicles at the direction of the police without plaintiffs’ consent. As discussed here, after trial level proceedings produced differing results, the Appellate Division issued a published opinion, reported at 455 N.J. Super. 225 (App. Div. 2018), that resolved, largely in plaintiffs’ favor, a number of issues under the Predatory Towing Prevention Act, N.J.S.A. 56:13-7...

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in four more cases. Three of them involve grants of certification. In the fourth appeal, the Court accepted a certified question as posed by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The certified question case is Bank Leumi USA v. Kloss. The question certified by the Third Circuit and accepted by the Supreme Court is “When a party filed, in lieu of an answer, a motion to dismiss under Rule 4:6-2(e) for failure to state a claim, and the court dismissed with prejudice, is that party subject to claim preclusion when—in a later suit that it...

On this date in 1962, the Supreme Court decided Sarner v. Sarner, 38 N.J. 463 (1962). The Court’s unanimous decision there, along with Sunset Beach Amusement Corp. v. Belk, 33 N.J. 162 (1960), on which Sarner relied extensively, is a foundation stone of the “fund in court” doctrine. That doctrine is currently embodied in Rule 4:42-9(a)(2), but was also contained in the predecessor rule that governed in Sarner. The fund in court doctrine is one basis for an award of attorneys’ fees. As Justice Schettino stated in Sarner, “[t]he term ‘fund in court’ is...