Case Law Summaries

Getty Petroleum Marketing, Inc. v. City of Bayonne Zoning Board of Adjustment

ZONING — Decisions made by municipal land use boards are entitled to considerable deference because local boards are more familiar with a community’s characteristics and interests than a court.

• Opinion Date: July 28, 2008
• Real Property Law

State of New Jersey in the Interest of X.B.

LANDLORD-TENANT; PUBLIC HOUSING — Persons with criminal or delinquency convictions who have been given notice that they have been placed on a no-trespass list are barred from entering public housing complexes even though there is no procedure to have one’s name removed from such a list.

• Opinion Date: July 31, 2008
• Real Property Law

City of Long Branch v. Anzalone

CONDEMNATION; REDEVELOPMENT — The New Jersey Constitution requires a finding of substantial evidence of actual blight before private property may be taken for the purposes of redevelopment, meaning that there must be a finding of physical or social deterioration to the point where an area is threatened to become intractable.

• Opinion Date: August 7, 2008
• Real Property Law

Martorana Enterprises v. Visions Beauty Spa, Inc.

LEASES; REPAIRS — Where a lease only requires a tenant to repair or maintain items within its demised premises, the landlord remains responsible for a rooftop HVAC system even if the system is an individualized unit for the demised premises alone.

• Opinion Date: September 12, 2008
• Real Property Law

Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. v. Ronghi

FORECLOSURES; MORTGAGES; NOTICES — Even assuming that a borrower does not receive the required “notice to cure” under the Fair Foreclosure Act, a borrower cannot wait for very long after a default judgment is entered, and certainly not after a purchaser at a sheriff’s sale begins investing substantial sums of money and time into the property and expect that the default judgment will be set aside.

• Opinion Date: September 5, 2008
• Real Property Law

Kawecki v. The Board of Adjustment of the City of Garfield

ZONING — Local land use boards are accorded considerable deference given their proximity to, and knowledge of, local conditions and their findings are only to be overturned if found to be arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable.

• Opinion Date: August 27, 2008
• Real Property Law

Princeton Junction Development Partners v. Washington Township

ZONING — The deference given to a land use board’s decision is greater when a court reviews a denial, rather than a grant, of a variance.

• Opinion Date: August 18, 2008
• Real Property Law

Greenwood v. The Mayor and Township Committee of the Township of Hopewell

ZONING; ORDINANCES — The fundamental question in all zoning ordinance cases is whether the requirements of the ordinance are reasonable under the circumstances.

• Opinion Date: August 14, 2008
• Real Property Law

Kalnas v. Township of Franklin Zoning Board of Adjustment

ZONING; APPEALS — To get a court to relax the 45 day deadline for an appeal of a zoning decision, a party must show a special equitable or public interest basis for an extension because a municipality and a successful party in a land use board proceeding are entitled to repose.

• Opinion Date: August 13, 2008
• Real Property Law

Butler v. Jersey City Zoning Board of Adjustment

ZONING STANDARDS — A court can rule as to whether a land use board has the right to consider or reject design standards and if a board’s decision is not arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable and is supported by substantial evidence in the record, it will be upheld.

• Opinion Date: August 8, 2008
• Real Property Law