Court Filings

The Appellate Division affirmed the Family Part's April 4, 2025 order reinstating and enforcing child support arrears owed by Shawn J. Harris to his ex-wife, Della M. Bournes. The court found New Jersey properly registered and enforced a Texas child-support order under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), and that a November/October 2024 administrative USSO that closed enforcement improperly vacated arrears. Because the anti-retroactivity statute does not bar cancelling or reinstating arrears tied to a child's emancipation and Harris never obtained a retroactive reduction by court motion, the judge correctly reinstated arrears and denied Harris's cross-motion.

The Appellate Division reviewed consolidated appeals by Allstate and GEICO from interlocutory orders that allowed plaintiffs to pursue common-law bad faith and statutory Insurance Fair Conduct Act (IFCA) claims while their underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage disputes remained unresolved. Allstate's appeal was dismissed as moot after the UIM coverage dispute was resolved. As to GEICO, the court held the trial court abused its discretion by denying GEICO's request to sever and stay discovery on plaintiff Cirelli's bad faith and IFCA claims until the UIM coverage dispute was resolved, because proceeding with expansive bad-faith discovery prematurely would be inefficient and potentially prejudicial. The case was remanded for proceedings consistent with that ruling.

The Appellate Division affirmed the Chancery Division's May 14, 2025 order denying the executors' motion to compel arbitration of will/trust disputes under Samuel Hekemian's 2002 will. The court held the will's arbitration clause is not a valid, enforceable waiver because interested parties did not mutually assent to arbitrate or knowingly relinquish their right to court adjudication. The court also held arbitration clauses in testamentary instruments that would displace statutory court supervision of estates conflict with New Jersey's Probate Code, so the disputes must remain subject to court proceedings.

The Appellate Division held that New Jersey's Ski Act applies to snow tubing. The court reversed the trial court's denial of summary judgment for Ski Campgaw Management LLC, concluding the Act displaces common-law negligence claims where it applies. Because plaintiff failed to show the operator had actual or constructive notice of the deceleration mat being bunched up (a condition the statute requires notice of before liability attaches), Campgaw was entitled to summary judgment. The court remanded with directions to dismiss the plaintiff's claims with prejudice.

The Appellate Division affirmed the Public Employment Relations Commission's decision allowing twenty-eight employees in eleven job titles at Kean University, Montclair State University, and The College of New Jersey to be members of collective bargaining units represented by the AFT or CWA. The State argued those positions were managerial executives and thus excluded from union membership, but PERC (and the Director whose factual findings PERC adopted) found the positions did not formulate or direct the effectuation of management policy without independent review by higher-level supervisors. The court found PERC's application of statutory language and precedent reasonable and not arbitrary or capricious.

The New Jersey Supreme Court held that historical cell site location information (CSLI) involves technical and specialized knowledge and therefore must be presented to a jury by a qualified expert under N.J.R.E. 702. The case arose from defendant Jule Hannah’s murder conviction where a detective testified as a lay witness mapping cell towers from phone records; the Appellate Division had reversed, and the Supreme Court affirmed that reversal. The Court found CSLI interpretation goes beyond ordinary juror knowledge, that the detective’s lay testimony and the prosecutor’s closing remarks risked misleading the jury, and that limiting instructions were insufficient to cure the error.

The Appellate Division affirmed the Law Division's denial without prejudice of R.G.C.'s second application to expunge her criminal record under New Jersey's "clean slate" law. The court held that although more than ten years had passed since her conviction, petitioner failed to prove her large unpaid restitution obligation was not "willful noncompliance." Because she offered no competent, credibly documented evidence of inability to pay (despite claiming deportation, illness, and poverty), the court found her post-release nonpayment was a deliberate choice and therefore denied expungement.

The Appellate Division reversed defendant Christopher Reynoso's convictions for murder, attempted murder, and weapons offenses and remanded for a new trial because the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that his initial waiver of Miranda rights and subsequent pre-invocation statements were voluntary. The court found several police-controlled circumstances undermined voluntariness: the mother's limited English and inadequate translation, denial of a private post-warning consultation between defendant and his mother, and a detective's statement implying negative consequences if defendant asked for a lawyer. Those factors, taken together, overcame evidence the interrogation was calm and included breaks, requiring reversal and suppression error remediation.

The Appellate Division affirmed Eric T. Seddens's convictions for aggravated manslaughter, unlawful possession of a weapon, and automobile theft. The main issue was whether the trial court properly admitted evidence of an aggravated assault Seddens committed against the same victim in 2018 under Rule 404(b) to prove motive and identity for the 2020 killing. The court held the prior assault was highly probative of motive (retaliation after his 2018 prosecution and imprisonment) and probative of identity (multiple shared characteristics of the two attacks). The trial court properly balanced prejudice against probative value, gave limiting instructions, and did not need to further sanitize the evidence.