Legal Research

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STATE DECISIONS:

Sweeney v. Sweeney
FAMILY LAW - Securities Arbitration - Property Settlement Agreement
"A property-settlement agreement incorporated into a divorce decree does not preclude a subsequent arbitration claim by a claimant against the ex-spouse's employer brokerage firm. "

State v. Echols
CRIMINAL PRACTICE - Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
"This case does not meet the standard of ineffective assistance of trial or appellate counsel necessary to warrant a new trial."

Open MRI of Morris & Essex, L.P. v. Frieri
ATTORNEY/CLIENT - Legal Malpractice - Fraud
"The trial court inappropriately denied a motion for summary judgment by intervener Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor, on a claim for administrative penalties based on the operation of an MRI facility without a license, where there is no serious question of fact as to the operating partnership's knowledge and liability under the Insurance Fraud Prevention Act. Dominick Fiorenza, Mark Cammarota, and Eddy Fischgrund organized a limited liability company, MRI Management, to establish a facility dedicated to performing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests. A partnership, Open MRI of Morris & Essex (Open), was created to own and operate the facility. John R. Frieri was retained as legal counsel. Open filed an application with the Department of Health and Senior Services for a certificate of need for a proposed MRI facility. On May 6, 1997, the then-commissioner wrote a letter to Ray Carolonz, the chief operating officer of Open, and Fiorenza, stating that the commissioner approved the application and that a license was required before operation. "

Chance v. McCann
CONTRACTS - Partnerships - Attorneys
"In this dispute arising out of the dissolution of a law firm, defendant is entitled to a jury trial on his claim that his deceased partner's breach of their partnership agreement terminated his obligations to make payments under it."

State v. Cassady
CRIMINAL PRACTICE - Lesser-Included Offense
"There was no rational basis for a jury instruction on theft as a lesser-included offense to robbery where, in committing the crime, defendant threatened a bank teller by demanding money and vaulted a seven-foot partition into the teller's area, causing the teller to flee for her life."

State v. Vallejo
CRIMINAL PRACTICE - Other-Crimes Evidence
"The repeated testimony regarding prior incidents of domestic violence and the existence of a final restraining order against defendant without immediate curative instructions, and an insufficient jury instruction at the end of the trial require reversal of defendant's convictions."

Houseman v. Dare
FAMILY LAW - Pets
"The trial court erred in concluding that specific performance is not, as a matter of law, available to remedy a breach of an oral agreement about possession of a pet reached by its joint owners."

Pagano Co. v. 48 South Franklin Turnpike
REAL PROPERTY - Real Estate Broker Commissions
"An express agreement is not necessary to find that the purchaser of commercial property assumed the seller's obligation to pay real estate broker commissions due under leases it acquired under a general assignment from the seller."

Dempsey v. Alston
SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION - School Dress Codes
"N.J.S.A. 18A:11-8, which authorizes boards of education to adopt school dress code policies, is constitutional on its face and as applied to plaintiffs' son."

Township of Cinnaminson v. Bertino
LAND USE AND PLANNING - Adult Establishments
"The evidence must provide a rational, objective basis from which to ascertain the existence of a substantial governmental interest underpinning a zoning ordinance that restricts the locations where adult establishments can operate."

Dragon et al. v. Department of Environmental Protection et al.
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW - CAFRA - DEP - Permit - Settlement
"Given the express language of the exception to the regulatory development ban, which the homeowner clearly did not meet, the DEP did not correctly assess its "litigation risk," and, in any event, the agency could not use its settlement process to circumvent CAFRA's substantive permitting requirements."

FEDERAL DECISIONS:

River Nile Invalid Coach and Ambulance Inc. v. Velez
GOVERNMENT - Contract Bidding
"Because it does not have a legally protected property interest in its continued participation as a service provider in the New Jersey Medicaid program, River Nile does not have standing to challenge the defendants' implementation of the transportation broker system."

Vermont v. Brillon
CRIMINAL PRACTICE - Attorneys - Speedy Trial
"Since assigned counsel, just as retained counsel, act on behalf of their clients, and delays they seek are ordinarily attributable to the defendants they represent, the state Supreme Court erred in treating assigned counsel as state actors for purposes of a motion alleging denial of speedy trial."

Vaden v. Discover Bank et al.
ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION - Arbitration - Federal Jurisdiction
"A federal court may not entertain a petition to compel arbitration under Federal Arbitration Act § 4 based on the contents of a counterclaim when the whole controversy between the parties does not qualify for federal-court adjudication."

Kansas v. Colorado
CIVIL PRACTICE - Jurisdiction - Witness Fees
"Expert witness attendance fees that are available in cases brought under this Court's original jurisdiction shall be the same as the expert witness attendance fees that would be available in a district court under 28 U.S.C. § 1821(b)."

Bartlett, Executive Director of North Carolina State Board of Elections v. Strickland
ELECTION LAW - Redistricting
"Voting Rights Act § 2 does not require state officials to draw election-district lines to allow a racial minority that would make up less than 50 percent of the voting-age population in the redrawn district to join with crossover voters to elect the minority's candidate of choice"

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