Case Law Summaries

Holobeam, Inc. v. Tandy Corporation

LEASES; ASSIGNMENTS — If the settlement made between a landlord and a defaulting assignee-tenant is reasonable, then the assignee-tenant’s assignor will be liable for the remaining rent damages following default by the assignee.

• Opinion Date: March 25, 2010
• Real Property Law

Trunell v. Trust for Hazel Harrison

EASEMENTS — A property is not truly inaccessible to the extent that it would be entitled to a prescriptive easement if its owner has had access to the property, for a very long time, over a road to which it had no formal right to use but where it was never blocked from using that road.

• Opinion Date: March 16, 2010
• Real Property Law

Szelc v. Stanger

INSURANCE — An insurer’s duty to defend, unlike the duty to reimburse or indemnify, does not turn on the actual facts of the case, but turns on whether the complaint states a claim that could possibly trigger indemnification or reimbursement.

• Opinion Date: February 12, 2010
• Business Law

The Lighthouse Institute for Evangelism v. The City of Long Branch

ZONING; RLUIPA — The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 provides for damages when a municipality improperly denies land use approval to a house of worship, but the damages cannot cover a period prior to the date that a house of worship actually applied for permission to use its property as such.

• Opinion Date: April 13, 2010
• Real Property Law

34 Label Street Associates v. R.C. Search Co., Inc.

LEASES; EVICTION — If an eviction complaint is based on the tenant’s unlawfully holding over after the expiration of a lease, the issue as to the correct amount of rent to be paid under the lease is irrelevant.

• Opinion Date: April 8, 2010
• Real Property Law

Borough of Paramus v. Shamrock Creek, L.L.C.

MOUNT LAUREL; DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS — There are public policy considerations to bar enforcement of an unrecorded development agreement with respect to development.

• Opinion Date: March 30, 2010
• Real Property Law

Griglak v. CTX Mortgage Company, LLC

TILA; RESPA; STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS — Even where a claimant exercised reasonable diligence in investigating its claim, equitable tolling of a statute of limitation, including under RESPA and the TILA, is appropriate only where the alleged wrongful actor actively misled the claimant regarding the cause of action or where a claimant, in some extraordinary way, was prevented from asserting its rights, or where the claimant timely asserted its rights, but in a wrong form.

• Opinion Date: April 8, 2010
• Real Property Law

1952 Union Valley Road, L.L.C. v. Adelo Corporation

EASEMENTS — When the buyer of a property is well aware that a neighbor had cleared, paved, and maintained a portion of the buyer’s property and did nothing to stop it, an easement by estoppel is appropriate but, if the arrangement made by the predecessor owner was based on a personal relationship with the neighbor, the granting of such an easement in perpetuity is inappropriate.

• Opinion Date: March 30, 2010
• Real Property Law

Cotter v. Newark Housing Authority

CONTRACTS — Even if a governing body adopts a resolution approving a sale of its property, if a prospective buyer only has an unsigned draft agreement and correspondence between the prospective buyer and the governmental body evidences that there were negotiations toward a deal, but do not evidence that either party ever signed a contract or that the governmental authority had agreed to its terms, the prospective buyer cannot sustain a breach of contract claim.

• Opinion Date: March 17, 2010
• Real Property Law

In Re Ingalls

BANKRUPTCY; FRAUD; FIDUCIARY DUTIES — In bankruptcy, a creditor may seek to have a debt declared non-dischargeable if the creditor can prove five elements based on fraud or prove that the debtor was a fiduciary and had fraudulently misappropriated funds.

• Opinion Date: February 19, 2010
• Business Law