The Supreme Court announced today that it has granted review in five more cases. In four of those matters, the Court granted certification. The fifth case will be before the Court as a result of a motion for leave to appeal. Wild v. Carriage Funeral Holdings, Inc. was the subject of a published Appellate Division decision, reported at 458 N.J. Super. 416 (App. Div. 2019), and discussed here. There, the Appellate Division reversed a dismissal of plaintiff’s Law Against Discrimination case for failure to state a claim. The question presented to the Supreme Court, as phrased by its...

Cameron v. South Jersey Pubs, Inc., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2019). As discussed here, in Dugan v. TGI Friday’s, Inc., 231 N.J. 24 (2017), the Supreme Court rendered a split decision on class certification in two consolidated consumer action cases involving drink prices at TGI Friday’s restaurants. Those cases sought damage classes under Rule 4:32-1(b)(3). [Disclosure: My partner Susana Cruz Hodge and I filed an amicus brief in the Dugan cases on behalf of the Consumers League of New Jersey]. This case was a follow-on, in which only an injunctive relief class, under Rule...

On July 3, 1997, the Supreme Court decided Lemelledo v. Beneficial Management Corp. of America, 150 N.J. 255 (1997). Justice Handler’s opinion in that case, for a 6-0 Court, is a key Consumer Fraud Act (“CFA”) case. It is also the leading authority as to when a CFA claim is, or is not, pre-empted by the fact that the conduct complained of is regulated by multiple state agencies. The case, a class action, involved “loan packing,” which Justice Handler defined as “a practice on the part of commercial lenders that involves increasing the principal amount of a...