As usually occurs with the current Term nearing its end, the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division have issued relatively few opinions in the second half of August. Here are summaries of those opinions (in addition to this one, which I argued for the successful plaintiffs): Rivera v. The Valley Hospital, Inc., ___ N.J. ___ (2022). The issue in this case, which was before the Supreme Court on leave to appeal, was whether plaintiffs’ evidence in support of punitive damages was sufficient to defeat a defense motion to dismiss the punitive damages claim. As Justice Pierre-Louis noted in...

Today, Chief Justice Rabner issued the 2022-2023 General Assignment Order. From an appellate perspective, the headline news is that Judges Fisher, Sabatino, and Fasciale have been temporarily assigned to the Supreme Court effective September 1. The Chief Justice issued an order to that effect today as well, as discussed here. With that having occurred, the lineup of Presiding Judges of Parts of the Appellate Division has changed significantly, as all three judges assigned to the Supreme Court had been Presiding Judges of their respective Parts. Judges Gibbons Whipple (Part A), Currier (Part...

Norman International, Inc. v. Admiral Ins. Co., ___ N.J. ___ (2022). This case arose out of an injury to an employee of Home Depot in Nassau County, New York while he was using a blind cutting machine that was maintained by one of the plaintiffs (“Richfield”). The employee sued Richfield for his injuries. Richfield notified its insurer, defendant Admiral, but Admiral invoked an exclusion and contended that Admiral was not obligated to assign counsel to represent Richfield or to indemnify Richfield against any damages awarded to the employee. As Judge Fuentes, writing for a...