February 26 was the most recent post on this blog. From then until today, I have had an Appellate Division oral argument, an oral argument on a dispositive motion in the Law Division, and an oral argument in the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Meanwhile, the appellate courts have not been silent. Here is a summary of some of the decisions that have been issued during that window: State v. Shaw, ___ N.J. ___ (2020). This was the Supreme Court’s only decision during this time period. It addressed whether there should be a limit on the number of times that a prosecutor can submit a case to a...

On December 18, 1967, the Supreme Court decided Ellsworth Dobbs, Inc. v. Johnson, 50 N.J. 528 (1967). The Court’s 6-0 opinion, authored by Justice Francis, overturned nearly 100 years of New Jersey jurisprudence about when a broker earns a commission payment from a seller. As Justice Francis stated, in Hinds v. Henry, 36 N.J.L. 328 (Sup. 1873), “the former Supreme Court ruled that when a broker who had been duly authorized by the owner to find a buyer for his property produced a willing and able purchaser who entered into a contract to buy on terms agreeable to the owner, the...

In re Odyssey Contracting Corp., ___ F.3d ___ (3d Cir. 2019). Odyssey Contracting Corp. and L&L Painting Co., Inc., were (respectively) a subcontractor and the prime contractor on a project to repaint a bridge. They got into a payment dispute and sued each other for breach of contract. Odyssey filed for bankruptcy protection, and the legal dispute between these parties became and adversary proceeding in Bankruptcy Court. At the final pre-trial conference, the parties entered into a stipulation. That stipulation provided that if the Bankruptcy Court found that Odyssey was the breaching...