Category: Legislation Updates

Legislative Update: NJ Legislature Passes Proposed Legislation Extending Outdoor Dining to 2024

On June 29, the New Jersey Legislature unanimously passed Bill S2364 ScaAa (2R), which would extend the outdoor dining and drinking privileges allowed under P.L. 2021, c.15, from November 30, 2022 to November 30, 2024. As amended, the bill would extend by two years, until 11:59 P.M. on November 30, 2024, the time period during which certain restaurants, bars, distilleries, and breweries would be allowed to use a public sidewalk or outdoor spaces which they own or lease and are located either on or adjacent to their business premises as an area for the purpose of conducting food and beverage sales. Current law authorizing such uses expires on November 30, 2022. The bill would also provide that the use of tents, canopies, umbrellas, tables, chairs, or other fixtures be deemed a permitted use for the time period from the first day of April through the close of business on November 30 for each additional year in which this law is in effect. Any administrative rule or regulation that limits the use of these fixtures to 180 days or less would be inapplicable during the effective time of the law. Any administrative rule or regulation governing the use of outdoor fixtures on private or public property, or right of way designated by a municipality, between the...

Legislature Cleans Up After Morristown Hospital

The legislative response to Morristown Hospital, Assembly Bill 1135, became law on February 22, 2021. Morristown Hospital, a Tax Court case decided in 2015, stripped Morristown Hospital of its property tax exemption. The case dealt at length with the modern reality that many nonprofit hospitals include for-profit operations within their walls, including private practice groups and ancillary facilities like restaurants and shops. The Tax Court found that, among other reasons, the hospital’s for-profit operations vitiated its property tax exemption in its entirety. The case put in question the realty tax-exempt status of almost every nonprofit hospital in the state and, by extension, the tax exemption of many educational, religious, and charitable institutions which, similarly to hospitals, combine nonprofit and for-profit uses. Morristown Hospital injected uncertainty regarding nonprofits’ property tax exemptions and spawned litigation. After much debate among competing factions, including municipalities on one side and nonprofits on the other, the legislature has finally acted to bring clarity to the landscape. The new law provides for nonprofit hospitals to pay community service contributions based on the number of licensed beds in a given hospital, or a flat, per-day rate for satellite emergency care facilities. However, if the hospital or satellite emergency care facility has previously entered into a voluntary agreement with a municipality, the hospital or...

Service of Discovery Also Subject to New Deadline in Delaware Federal Court

We previously posted on the new deadline of 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time for all filings other than initial pleadings in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. On October 15, 2014, Chief Judge Leonard Stark of the District of Delaware issued a letter addressing certain questions about the new rule. Chief Judge Stark reiterated that filings and service must be completed by 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and further indicated that this rule applies to all filing and service deadlines — including service of discovery materials — in every case in the District of Delaware, other than initial pleadings or those cases in Bankruptcy Court.

Put Away that Midnight Oil: New Rule in the District of Delaware

On October 2, 2014, Chief Judge Leonard Stark of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware announced a new deadline of 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time for all filings other than initial pleadings. As of October 16, 2014, “[a]side from initial pleadings, all electronic transmissions of documents (including, but not limited to, motions, briefs, appendices, and discovery responses) must be completed by 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time, in order to be considered timely filed and served that day.” Initial pleadings which are filed before midnight will still be considered timely.

New York State’s Design Build Statute May Pave the Way for Public Private Partnerships

On December 9, 2011, New York became one of a growing number of states to pass legislation to allow design-build delivery for certain infrastructure projects. Given the current trend in repairing and replacing aging infrastructure through public private partnerships (“P3”), which traditionally use the design-build model, the passage of the design-build legislation may be a precursor to formal legislation allowing P3’s in New York.