On this date in 1984, the Supreme Court decided two cases, Fairlawn Shopper, Inc. v. Director, Div. of Taxation, 98 N.J. 64 (1984), and Today Newspapers, Inc. v. Director, Div. of Taxation, 98 N.J. 75 (1984). Both cases involved the question of whether publishers’ purchases of printing services and materials for “pennysavers” (also known as “shoppers”), which are newspapers that are distributed for free and whose “revenues are derived almost entirely from advertising,” were subject to sales tax. That issue had been the subject of prior Appellate...

Orientale v. Jennings, ___ N.J. ___ (2019). As Justice Albin’s opinion for a unanimous Court today described, remittitur and additur (the ability of a trial judge to reduce or increase a jury verdict that is “so grossly excessive [remittitur] or inadequate [additur] that it shocks the judicial conscience) have been part of American law since a decision by Justice Story in 1822. By 1917, both were fixtures of New Jersey law. Here is how Justice Albin described the traditional remittitur and additur practice: Under our common law jurisprudence, when a jury’s damages award is so...

On this date in 1996, the Supreme Court decided Tormee Construction, Inc. v. Mercer Cty. Improvement Auth. That day saw the Court’s decision issued, nine days after the case was argued orally before the Court. But the Court’s full written opinion by Justice Pollock, for a five-Justice majority, with a dissent by Justice Handler in which Chief Justice Wilentz joined, did not come out until February 6, 1996. 143 N.J. 143 (1996). Defendant (“MCIA”) solicited bids for several construction projects involving branches of the Mercer County Library. One of the bid...