Chief Justice Rabner has issued the general Assignment Order for 2019-2020. It is available here. As occurs every year, the eight Appellate Division Parts have been reshuffled. But some things remain the same. Judge Messano continues as Presiding Judge for Administration, and Judge Sabatino as Deputy Presiding Judge for Administration. Those two judges, as well as Judges Koblitz, Alvarez, Fisher, Yannotti, and Fuentes remain as Presiding Judges of their respective Parts. Judge Fasciale has become the Presiding Judge of Part B, a position previously held by Judge Simonelli. There are two...

Susko v. Borough of Belmar, 458 N.J. Super. 583 (App. Div. 2019); Curto v. A Country Place Condominium Association, 921 F.3d 405 (3d Cir. 2019).  Yesterday, while I was in or traveling to and from court for most of the day, the Appellate Division and the Third Circuit, no doubt coincidentally, each decided cases involving access to swimming.  The two cases dealt with very different facts and legal issues, however. Susko was a case that alleged a violation of New Jersey’s public trust doctrine and N.J.S.A. 40:61-22.20, a statute regarding beach access fees.  After Superstorm Sandy...

Correa v. Grossi, 458 N.J. Super. 571 (App. Div. 2019).  Multiple pieces of related legislation can be inconsistent, and courts are called on to harmonize them using classic principles of statutory interpretation.  Today’s opinion by Judge Reisner applied de novo review to the purely legal issues involved and reached a commonsense result in reconciling facially conflicting election law statutes. By virtue of a 1974 amendment, N.J.S.A. 19:23-22.4 requires that sample ballots for primary elections be printed in English and Spanish where 10% of a district’s registered voters have...