Today is a court holiday for New Jersey state and federal courts. That affords an opportunity to catch up with this week’s published opinions from the Supreme Court,, the Appellate Division, and the Third Circuit. Here are summaries of those rulings (the Third Circuit also issued some published immigration decisions this week, which are not covered here): Glassman v. Friedel, ___ N.J. ____ (2021). In this unanimous opinion by Justice Patterson, the Court “address[ed] the allocation of damages in cases in which a plaintiff asserts claims against successive tortfeasors and settles...

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted review in three new cases. In two of those matters, the Court granted certification. The third is before the Court on leave to appeal. The leave to appeal case is Kennedy v. Weichert Co. The question presented, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk’s office, is “Are commissioned real estate salespersons exempt from the Wage Payment Law by operation of their exclusion from the Unemployment Compensation Law under N.J.S.A. 43:21-19(i)(7)(K), or pursuant to the Real Estate Brokers and Salesmen Act?” An unpublished opinion by a...

State of New Jersey v. County of Ocean, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2021). This opinion by Judge Mawla involved the question of whether the State was obligated to indemnify Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office (“OCPO”) in a case brought against that office, one of its detectives, and Ocean County. An OCPO detective rear-ended another vehicle, injuring the driver of that vehicle, who then sued the OCPO, the detective and others. N.J.S.A. 40A:10-3 requires counties to carry insurance against claims for injuries arising from accidents. Ocean County had an excess insurance...