Fowler v. Akzo Nobel Chemicals, Inc., ___ N.J. ___ (2022); Linden Democratic Committee v. City of Linden, ___ N.J. ___ (2022). As Justice Albin’s tenure on the Supreme Court nears its end (he will turn 70 tomorrow), he issued two new opinions. One is a tort case, decided by a 3-2 vote, and the other is an election matter in which Justice Albin wrote for a unanimous Court today. Today’s opinion was the Linden Democratic Committee matter. As summarized here, the question in the case centered on what the Municipal Vacancy Act, N.J.S.A. 40A:16-1 et seq. (“the Vacancy...

Samolyk v. Berthe, ___ N.J. ___ (2022). As discussed here, this case involved a set of facts in which one of the plaintiffs jumped into a lagoon to rescue their neighbors’ dog. The plaintiff was injured in doing that, and she and her husband sued the neighbors for their alleged negligence in allowing the dog to get into the lagoon. On a dispositive motion, the Law Division ruled against plaintiffs because no New Jersey case had extended the common law rescue doctrine, which allows suit against a negligent party for injuries suffered by a rescuer of a person, to the rescue of property,...

An enjoyable sojourn in Atlantic City for the New Jersey State Bar Association Annual Meeting and Convention delayed this post. I had the privilege of being part of a panel on “Effective Oral Argument in Appellate and Trial Courts,” which featured Justice Albin, Judge Shwartz of the Thgird Circuit, Judge Fisher of the Appellate Division, and Judge Williams of the District of New Jersey, which was great fun for the panelists and well-received by the overflow crowd of attendees. But now, on to summaries of this week’s published opinions (two other decisions this week were...