Chief Justice Rabner has issued the General Assignment Order for the coming Term. It is available here. At the Appellate Division level, the headline is that the number of Parts has been reduced from eight to seven, encompassing a total of thirty judges. Two of the Parts, Parts C and E, have five judges, while the other Parts have four judges, as in the past. Unlike in several past years, there is no provision for any “Temporary Assignees” on any Part. That is despite the fact that the thirty-judge composition of the Appellate Division for 2021-22 is smaller than the...

Temple v. Temple, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2021). When plaintiff Jeffrey Temple and defendant Cynthia Temple divorced, they entered into a marital settlement agreement, incorporated into their 2004 dual judgment of divorce, under which Jeffery was to pay Cynthia $5,200 per month in permanent alimony. In July 2020, Jeffrey moved to terminate that alimony obligation, asserting that Cynthia had either remarried or had been cohabiting with a man with whom she had a fourteen-year relationship. By statute, N.J.S.A. 2A:34-23(n) and 25, caselaw, e.g., Gayet v. Gayet, 92 N.J. 149 (1983), and...

Lawson v. Dewar, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2021). This opinion by Judge Fisher was made on summary disposition, a rare occurrence in our appellate courts. In the first paragraph of the opinion, Judge Fisher emphasized that the opinion was written, and published, “chiefly to point out commonly misunderstood distinctions between motions seeking reconsideration of final orders and motions seeking reconsideration of interlocutory orders” (emphases by Judge Fisher). The facts of the case, though important to the parties, are not significant to the legal principles expressed, and...