In the last several weeks, this blog has largely focused on Supreme Court decisions and grants of review. That was not meant to slight the Appellate Division, whose judges have made some important rulings as well. Here are summaries of some of the most significant published rulings of the Appellate Division during that period: Sosa v. Massachusetts Bay Ins. Co., ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2019). In an opinion by Judge Ostrer that focused on the language and effect of a water damage exclusion in the subject homeowner’s insurance policy, the Appellate Division reversed a summary...

State in the Interest of D.M., ___ N.J. ___ (2019). In this juvenile delinquency case, neither the State nor defendant sought oral argument in the Appellate Division. The State, the respondent in that court, explained that it believed the issues raised by defendant on appeal of the Family Part’s finding of delinquency by endangering the welfare of a child were governed by settled law. However, the Appellate Division sua sponte directed the parties to file supplemental briefs on a new issue: ““whether the lack of a finding of penetration or coercion undermines the delinquency...

Zahl v. Eastland, 2019 WL 2025237 (App. Div. May 8, 2019). [Disclosure: I argued this appeal for the successful defendants-appellants, having come into the case after the Law Division entered judgment against defendants]. This was a legal malpractice case in which the Law Division entered a default judgment against defendants of over $1,057,000. Defendants appealed, and today the Appellate Division (Judges Messano and Fasciale) reversed in an unpublished opinion. The panel adopted defendants’ characterization of the proceedings that led to the default judgment as a “train...