Mack-Cali Realty Corp. v. State of New Jersey, ___ N.J. ___ (2022). As summarized here, the Appellate Division’s published opinion, written by Judge Messano, affirmed the Law Division’s dismissal of most of plaintiffs’ claims in this case for failure to state a claim. Plaintiffs challenged a Jersey City ordinance that imposed a 1% tax on employers’ payrolls but exempted from the calculation employees who lived in Jersey City. The Appellate Division did, however, permit a claim under the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution to go forward, reversing the...

Dobco, Inc. v. Bergen County Improvement Authority, ___ N.J. ___ (2022). In its first opinion in several weeks, the Supreme Court today affirmed, in a per curiam opinion substantially for the reasons given by the Appellate Division, a ruling that the defendant Authority was required to use a public bidding process in selecting a redeveloper for the Bergen County Courthouse. The Appellate Division’s opinion, written by Judge Messano, was summarized here. That opinion contained a detailed analysis of the interplay among the Local Public Contracts Law, N.J.S.A. 40A:11-4(a), the County...

On Monday, January 31, I have my first in-person appellate argument since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Preparation for that, and other matters, made the current week go by all too fast. Here are summaries of the published opinions that the Supreme Court and Appellate Division issued this week: State v. Nyema, ___ N.J. ___ (2022). This opinion by Justice Pierre-Louis, for a unanimous Supreme Court, actually entailed two cases, the other being State v. Myers. The two defendants were riding in a car with a co-defendant when the police stopped the vehicle. An armed robbery of a 7-Eleven...