Miller v. State Operated School District of the City of Newark, ___ N.J. ___ (2019). Today, in a per curiam opinion, the Supreme Court affirmed, by a 5-2 vote, the Appellate Division’s previously unpublished decision in this matter on the opinion below. That opinion, written by Judge Vernoia, was also approved for publication and appears at ___ N.J. Super. ___ (App. Div. 2019). Justices LaVecchia and Patterson were the dissenters. The issue, quoted in full here, was whether the defendant school district’s termination of plaintiff’s employment violated her tenure rights...

Rowe v. Bell & Gossett Co., 239 N.J. 531 (2019). This first Supreme Court opinion of the new Term, written by Justice Patterson for a unanimous Court, addresses the hearsay exception contained in Evidence Rule 803(c)(25). Plaintiff, who died during the pendency of appeals in the case, sued a number of defendants after contracting mesothelioma. All but one defendant, “Universal,” settled before trial. Plaintiff won a jury verdict as to Universal. But Universal offered into evidence interrogatory answers and deposition testimony of the settling defendants in support of a...

L.R. v. Camden City Public School Dist., 238 N.J. 547 (2019). A relative rarity for our Supreme Court occurred in this case today: the decision of the Appellate Division was affirmed by an equally divided Court. Only six Justices sat because Justice Fernandez-Vina did not participate. As discussed here, the question presented in this appeal was “Are plaintiffs—the mother of a student with a disability and a nonprofit advocacy organization—entitled to obtain from several school districts redacted copies of settlement agreements and records reflecting the provision of special services to...