As of March 16, Judge Carchman reaches mandatory retirement age.  With Judge Carchman’s consent, Chief Justice Rabner has issued an order recalling him to service on Part F of the Appellate Division through August 31, 2012.  In a separate order, Judge Fisher has been designated as the new Presiding Judge of Part F, in place of Judge Carchman.

Grow Company, Inc. v. Chokshi, ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2012).  This is yet another in what seems to be an endless stream of appeals of awards of attorneys’ fees.  That stream flows despite the Supreme Court’s admonition in several cases, including Rendine v. Pantzer, 141 N.J. 282 (1995), and Furst v. Einstein Moomjy, Inc., 182 N.J. 1 (2004), that fee disputes should not give rise to a second litigation, that appellate courts should only rarely overturn

CTC Demolition Co., Inc. v. GMH AETC Management, 424 N.J. Super. 1 (App. Div. 2012).  The “first-filed” rule of comity says that, as a general notion, the court that first acquires jurisdiction over a matter takes precedence over another court that acquires jurisdiction later unless there are “special equities.”  The question in this case, in which Judge Fisher wrote the panel’s opinion, was whether a party’s demand for medi