Schwartz v. Menas, ___ N.J. ___ (2022). [Disclosure: I argued this case for the successful plaintiffs, having handled the appeal along with co-counsel, Giovanni DePierro of DePierro Radding]. In 1936, the Court of Errors and Appeals decided Weiss v. Revenue Building & Loan Ass’n, 116 N.J.L. 208 (E. & A. 1936). That case held that a new business could never claim lost profits as an element of damages in a lawsuit and established in New Jersey what has been called the “new business rule.” Though the Appellate Division had severely and repeatedly criticized that...

The Supreme Court has been functioning for months with four Justices, plus Judge Fuentes on temporary assignment. Judge Fuentes is due to retire on September 1. At that time, the Court will lack a quorum, as Article VI, section 2, paragraph 1 provides that five members of the Court shall constitute a quorum. As a result, Chief Justice Rabner today issued an order temporarily assigning Judges Fisher, Sabatino, and Fasciale to the Supreme Court, effective September 1. (Judge Messano, the Chief Judge of the Appellate Division, waived this temporary assignment, according to the order). That...

The dog days of summer often see the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division issuing opinions in cases argued earlier in the Term. The Third Circuit is often more active than those other courts in issuing opinions during the summer. Here are summaries of some of the published opinions issued by the three courts last week. These include all published opinions, civil and criminal, of the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division, and the lone published civil decision issued by the Third Circuit (without covering several criminal opinions issued by that court last week): East Bay Drywall, LLC...