Devers v. Devers, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2022). This was a matrimonial appeal. The issue centered around whether a particular financial account (“the Gauss account”) was marital property. Plaintiff wife filed a motion for summary judgment declaring that the account was marital property. The Family Part denied that motion “without prejudice, as [that c]ourt lack[ed] subject matter jurisdiction” on January 16, 2020, and the parties proceeded to litigate other issues. Plaintiff later moved for reconsideration, but the Family Part ruled, in an order entered on...

Harris v. City of Newark, ___ N.J. ___ (2022). [Disclosure: My firm, Lite DePalma Greenberg & Afanador, LLC, represents the City of Newark in certain cases, including cases in which the defense of qualified immunity is or might be raised, but the firm had no involvement in the case that is the subject of this post]. This opinion by Justice Patterson, for a unanimous Supreme Court, addressed the issue of whether an order denying a motion of a public entity or public employee for summary judgment granting qualified immunity in a civil rights act (whether under the federal or New Jersey...

Appellate Division opinions designated as not for publication do not often address legal issues such as whether and when a judgment under appeal is final. But today, the Appellate Division issued two opinions that touch on that subject in different contexts. Williams v. County of Middlesex, 2021 N.J. Super Unpub. LEXIS 1580 (App. Div. July 28, 2021), was a suit by plaintiff corrections officers against a number of defendants. Plaintiffs alleged that they had been physically and emotionally injured, and had been subjected to disciplinary charges, after they had intervened in a fight between a...