On this date in 1983, a unanimous Supreme Court decided Callen v. Sherman’s, Inc., 92 N.J. 114 (1983). The case involved whether distraint, a procedure that allowed commercial landlords to seize, or even sell, without notice or hearing, property of a tenant who owes rent, violated due process. As Justice Pollock noted in the Court’s opinion, “since at least the thirteenth century, the common law has condoned distraint as an exception to the principle that ‘self-help is an enemy of the law, a contempt of the king and his court.'” New Jersey had a distraint...

On this date in 1957, the Supreme Court decided Tessmar v. Grossner, 23 N.J. 193 (1957). The case involved a dispute over patient records from a dermatology practice in Westwood, NJ. Plaintiff’s decedent, Dr. Kadisch, became ill and was unable to practice. He entered into a written contract with defendant under which defendant would “take care of the practice during Dr. Kadisch’s illness.” He was to see patients two days per week and be paid $40 per day. Soon after that, Dr. Kadisch died. Defendant continued under the written contract for a short time, after which he...

State v. Gerena, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2021). Defendant was convicted of fourth degree lewdness. A statutory grading element of that offense is that one or more of the children whom witnesses testified were near defendant were under the age of thirteen. To address the age issue, the State offered testimony of witnesses who provided lay opinion as to what they perceived as the children’s ages and heights. Defendant appealed his conviction, primarily on the ground that it was error to admit that lay opinion testimony. In State v. Koettgen, 89 N.J.L. 678 (E. & A. 1916), a...