September 20, 2019
MARGARITA ROMANOVA reports on a recent published decision from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.
The Appellate Division recently ruled that the 2014 amendments to the alimony statute did not alter the changed circumstances standard applicable on an alimony modification application based on cohabitation and reversed a trial court's order that permitted broad and intrusive discovery of the former spouse's and her new boyfriend's financial information.
Following a ten-year marriage, the parties were divorced in 2014, after the effective date of the 2014 amendments to the alimony statute. The Judgment of Divorce incorporated their Marital Settlement Agreement, wherein the Husband agreed to pay the Wife alimony for seven-and-a-half years. The parties agreed that the(...)
September 20, 2019
ROBERT B. SPAWN reports on a recent unpublished decision from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.
In a recent New Jersey case, a Defendant stipulated to liability for causing a November 2012 rear-end collision in which a Plaintiff was injured. Plaintiff conceded that he was subject to New Jersey's "verbal threshold" law (N.J.S.A. 39:6A-8(a)), meaning that, in order to recover, Plaintiff would have to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that he sustained a permanent injury caused by the November 2012 collision. Accordingly, during trial, the parties disputed the cause and extent of the injuries to Plaintiff's cervical spine, left shoulder, and lumbar spine. Plaintiff expectedly claimed that his injuries were caused by the November 2012 accident (and were(...)
September 12, 2019
MARGARITA ROMANOVA reports on a recent unpublished decision from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.
Following a two-year marriage, the parties were divorced by way of a Dual Judgment of Divorce that incorporated the parties' Marital Settlement Agreement (MSA). The parties agreed to share joint legal custody of their child, and the Wife was designated as the Parent of Primary Residence and the Husband as the Parent of Alternate Residence. The parties also agreed that New Jersey law would govern the custody and parenting disputes relative to their minor child.
While the divorce proceedings were pending, the Wife moved to Italy, and the parties agreed on a parenting time schedule whereby the child alternated time with each parent between New Jersey and Italy. After(...)
August 19, 2019
ROBERT B. SPAWN reports on a recent unpublished decision from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.
In a recent case, a Plaintiff sued a Defendant-New Jersey Borough for personal injuries after she fell off of the east side of a boardwalk when visiting the beach. More specifically, Plaintiff alleged that the absence of a handrail on the section of the boardwalk where she fell constituted a dangerous condition that was the proximate cause of her injuries.
Prior to the incident, in October 2012, a portion of Defendant's boardwalk was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. In contemplating reconstruction design, Defendant consulted engineers about a number of aspects of the boardwalk, including the placement of railings. Once it was confirmed that the absence of railings(...)
July 29, 2019
ROBERT B. SPAWN reports on a recent unpublished decision from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.
In a recent New Jersey case, a Plaintiff sued for personal injuries after she slipped and fell on a sidewalk outside of a Grocery Store, which leased the subject premises from a Defendant-LLC. More specifically, Plaintiff alleged that the cause of her 2010 fall was a defect in the sidewalk created by the deterioration of an expansion joint between two concrete slabs.
The lease agreement (which was executed in 1988) in place at the time of Plaintiff's fall specified that the Grocery Store (the tenant/lessee) was responsible for maintaining and repairing all parts of the premises, including the sidewalks. The lease also expressly stated that Defendant (the landlord)(...)
