Rialto-Capitol Condominium Ass’n, Inc. v. Baldwin Assets Assocs. Urban Renewal Co., LLC, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2020). As Judge Fisher noted in his opinion in this case, “[t]he law is well settled that [condominium] unit owners have standing to bring claims for damages to their units, including the units’ contents or those fixed items that form part of the units, while the condominium] association has standing to pursue a claim for damages caused to the common elements. See Siller v. Hartz Mountain Assocs., 93 N.J. 370, 378 (1983); Belmont Condo. Ass’n, Inc. v. Geibel, 432 N.J. Super. 52, 85 (App. Div. 2013). Difficulties in applying this distinction usually arise from uncertainty about what is part of the unit and what is part of the common elements. There is no such problem here.” read more

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in State v. Paden-Battle. The question presented in that case, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk’s office, is “Did the jury’s verdict acquitting defendant of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and weapons offenses preclude the sentencing court from finding that defendant ordered the victim’s execution?” read more

Supreme Court grants of leave to appeal are infrequent, but the Court’s latest wave of five new cases taken up for review includes three appeals on leave. All of those are criminal matters. The two other newly accepted cases, in which the Court granted certification, are civil appeals. read more

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: read more

The Supreme Court rarely takes up sentencing appeals. But the Court announced that it has done just that in State v. Rivera. The question presented, as phrased by the Supreme Court Clerk’s office, is “Was the sentencing court’s finding and weighing of the aggravating and mitigating factors based on sufficient, credible evidence in the record and did the court adequately explain its reasoning?” A two-judge Appellate Division panel, in an unpublished order that (along with the transcript of oral argument before the panel) is available here, affirmed the Law Division and held that “the sentence is not manifestly excessive or unduly punitive and does not constitute an abuse of discretion.” read more

The Administrative Office of the Courts has issued its 2018-19 Annual Report of the New Jersey Courts, which is available here. The following statistics for the Supreme Court and Appellate Division appear in this report. read more

The Supreme Court announced that it has granted certification in five cases. These are the first grants of the current Term. read more

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 this as a “mind-bending” question. read more