Case Law Summaries

Cohen v. Chase Bank, N.A.

ARBITRATION; CLASS ACTIONS — New Jersey will honor other state’s laws upholding an arbitration provision in a credit card agreement if there is a proper choice of law provision is in a credit card agreement, but will excise a class action waiver from the agreement even though not invalidating the entire agreement by reason of the purported class action waiver.

• Opinion Date: January 20, 2010
• Business Law

Cooper v. Barnickel Enterprises, Inc.

WORKERS COMPENSATION — Off-premises employees enjoy the same ability to deal with certain basic needs enjoyed by on-premises employees such as coffee and lunch breaks and if it is reasonable for an employee to travel a short distance to enjoy a coffee break and then the employee is injured during that travel, such injury is compensable under the Workers Compensation Act.

• Opinion Date: January 13, 2010
• Business Law

Fox v. Drozd

ATTORNEYS FEES — An attorney’s bill for services must be reasonable both as to the hourly rate and as to the services performed, and the practice of estimating billable hours long after the fact calls into question the validity of an attorney’s bill.

• Opinion Date: January 13, 2010
• Business Law

Asch Webhosting, Inc. v. Adelphia Business Solutions Investment, LLC

CONTRACTS; EXCULPATION — Exculpatory clauses in private contracts are generally sustained so long as they do not adversely affect the public interest, if the exculpated party is not otherwise under a legal duty to perform, and the contract does not grow out of unequal bargaining power or be otherwise unconscionable.

• Opinion Date: January 25, 2010
• Business Law

Pote v. City of Atlantic City

LANDOWNERS LIABILITY; BOARDWALKS — Unlike where a commercial property is adjacent to a sidewalk, the owner of a property owner does not have any duty to clear snow and ice from a boardwalk adjacent to the commercial property.

• Opinion Date: January 19, 2010
• Real Property Law

Leisuretowne Association, Inc. v. Township of Southampton

SERVITUDES — A servitude may be modified or terminated when, due to changed circumstances, it is impossible as a practical matter to accomplish the purpose for which the servitude was created.

• Opinion Date: January 20, 2010
• Real Property Law

Triffin v. Automatic Data Processing, Inc.

FRAUD — Just because one party may not be liable to the other on the grounds of fraud because the second party may not have relied on the statements of the first party, this does not mean that if the statements are made in court, the party making the statements might not be liable for a “fraud upon the court.”

• Opinion Date: January 11, 2010
• Business Law

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection v. Huber

ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS; CONSERVATION EASEMENTS — Where a title search would reveal the existence of a wetlands permit by its number and the permit would reveal the presence of a conservation easement on the property, a buyer of the property is charged with constructive notice of the conservation easement even though the recorded document does not specify the terms of that conservation easement.

• Opinion Date: January 20, 2010
• Real Property Law

McLaughlin v. Borough of Avalon

ZONING; INTERPRETATIONS; APPEALS — The time for an appeal of a decision by an administrative zoning officer runs from the date that the interested party knows or should have known of the action and the statutorily imposed time limitation was created to insulate the recipient of a building permit or other favorable disposition from the threat of unrestrained future challenges.

• Opinion Date: January 15, 2010
• Real Property Law

Nova Crete, Inc. v. City of Elizabeth

PUBLIC BIDDING; SURETIES —In a public bidding competition, a requirement that a bidder provide a certification from a responsible surety company that the surety will provide a surety bond in the event the bid is successful will not be satisfied by a conditional certification of a surety obligating it to issue such a bond only if the bidder requests its issuance.

• Opinion Date: January 15, 2010
• Real Property Law