Jury Verdict in Cliffside Park Case Upheld on Appeal
Verdict not based on averaging or misconduct according to New Jersey’s Appellate Division
An opinion released by a New Jersey appellate court found that a jury properly carried out its duties in Borough of Cliffside Park v. Estate of Ignatius Catanzaro., a condemnation case involving Cliffside Park’s taking of a downtown commercial building containing a restaurant on the first floor and residential apartments on the upper floors. Defendant Anthony C. Catanzaro alleged he was denied a fair trial because the final verdict was an average of the two appraisers’ estimate of the property’s value, and that a juror had an alleged conflict because she was friends with one of defendant’s adult stepson’s ex-girlfriends.
Unlike the court’s recent opinion in Pansini Custom Design Assocs., LLC v. City of Ocean City , which discussed a trial judge’s use of averaging for valuation purposes (and which we discussed in our New Jersey Condemnation Law Blog here), the Catanzaro court found no evidence that the jury engaged in averaging to reach its final conclusion. Rather, the court found that evidence of comparable sales existed in the record upon which the jury could have based its final verdict despite only deliberating for thirty minutes.
The court also found that the friendly relationship between defendant’s stepson and juror #7 did not impermissibly taint the verdict. Following a review of the law on juror misconduct, the court noted that defendant’s situation resembled those where no juror misconduct had been identified – specifically, the juror was friendly to the defendant’s claim rather than adverse, that juror #7’s alleged statements show that the jury was not subject to outside influences, and that the juror had not failed to report her relationship because she was never asked about it. The verdict of the jury was affirmed.
A copy of the Appellate Division’s opinion in Catanzaro can be found here.
The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Cory K. Kestner, Esq., of McKirdy & Riskin, PA, in the preparation of this article.
