Narleski v. Gomes, ___ N.J. ___ (2020). Near the beginning of his opinion for a unanimous Supreme Court in this case, Justice Albin summarized the issue: “Under our statutes and case law, a social host over the age of twenty-one has a duty not to serve alcohol to a visibly intoxicated guest, either an adult or a minor,if it is reasonably foreseeable the guest is about to drive. This case presents a variation on that theme. Does a young adult, over the age of eighteen but under the age of twenty-one –an adult under the lawful drinking age –have a duty not to facilitate the...

MZM Construction Co., Inc. v. New Jersey Building Laborers Statewide Benefit Funds, ___ F.3d ___ (3d Cir. 2020). Decisions about arbitration just keep on coming, from both New Jersey and federal courts. This latest opinion, by Judge Restrepo, addresses what he called (quoting a law review article) “‘the queen of all threshold issues’ in arbitration law”: who decides ‘whether an agreement exists, when the putative agreement includes an arbitration provision empowering an arbitrator to decide whether an agreement exists?” Judge Restrepo rightly referred to...

New Jersey Republican State Committee v. Murphy, ___ N.J. ___ (2020). As discussed here, the Supreme Court directly certified a challenge to the recently adopted COVID-19 Emergency Bond Act. After hearing oral argument last week, the Court moments ago issued a unanimous opinion by Chief Justice Rabner that upheld the constitutionality of the Act. The Court’s 57-page opinion described in detail the history, going back to the 1844 Constitution, of key provisions of the current 1947 New Jersey Constitution at issue: the Appropriations Clause of Article VIII, section 2, paragraph 2, the...