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construction-645465__340-300x200A recent decision in the case of Jacobs v. Mark Lindsay and Son Plumbing & Heating, Inc., by the Appellate Division of New Jersey’s Superior Court examined the interplay between two very important laws – New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act and the criminal “theft of services statute” in the context of a dispute between a contractor which wanted to get paid, and a homeowner who didn’t believe the contractor had earned his fee. It contains important lessons for residential construction contractors.

The Consumer Fraud Act and Theft of Services

New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act prohibits merchants from engaging in “unconscionable commercial practices.” The Consumer Fraud Act applies to “home improvement contractors,” and regulations issued by the Division of Community Affairs extend the Consumer Fraud Act’s protections to specific requirements for contracts for “home improvement” work, including having a signed, written contract in the first place. The New Jersey Criminal Code makes theft of services a criminal offense.

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girl-2607176__340-300x240There are many types of medical leave benefits which exist in New Jersey for employees, and they are ever-expanding and evolving. There is the federal Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 (“FMLA”) which allows an employee to take time off from work either for that employee’s own medical issues or to care for a seriously ill family member. The FMLA allows an employee to take up to twelve weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave each year as long as the employer has fifty or more employees.

To supplement this, in 2008 New Jersey enacted the Family Leave Act. That law provided up to six weeks of paid time off for employees to care for sick family members or newborn babies. The FLA did not cover time off for the employee’s own illness (because that is covered by New Jersey’s Temporary Disability Insurance laws (“TDI”)). Still, under the FLA, employees could take 6 weeks off to bond with or care for a family member and their jobs were protected during that period. The employee would receive up to 2/3rds of their normal weekly salary or wages (or approximately 66% of wages), up to a maximum of $650 per week. As with the FMLA, the FLA only applied to employers with fifty or more employees.

For an employee who had to be out for her own medical condition, pregnancy, or disability, that employee could file for TDI benefits. To qualify for TDI, an employee would need to be out of work for a medical reason for more than seven days. TDI benefits provide employees with up to 26 weeks of partial salary replacement. As with the 2008 FLA, the employee could receive up to 2/3rds of her normal wages. However, with TDI, that amount maxes-out at $637 per week.

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american-963191__340-300x200Background

On February 4, 2019, Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation which will raise the minimum wage in increments culminating in a minimum wage of $15 per hour on January 1, 2024.  The new law puts New Jersey at the forefront of the “living wage” movement, while the phase in is designed to lessen the impact on small businesses.  The new law amends the New Jersey Wage and Hour Law, which governs minimum wage and overtime requirements.

The legislation is the result of negotiations between the Governor and Legislature lasting more than a year.  The amendment was praised by labor unions and most Democrats in the state, but opposed by the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and most Republicans.

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contract-1464917__340-300x200Senator Marco Rubio recently introduced the Freedom to Compete Act. This proposed law would prohibit employers from entering into or enforcing non-compete agreements with lower level employees while simultaneously protecting employers’ trade secrets.

Non-Compete Agreements

Non-compete agreements are binding contractual restrictive covenants which limit an employee’s ability to compete with her employer after she leaves or while she is employed. These agreements normally prohibit the employee from forming a competing business, and also from directly or indirectly capacity by working for a competitor or soliciting their employer’s customers.

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macbook-336704__340-300x200The Benefits and Responsibilities of Ownership

Becoming the owner of a business has tremendous advantages:  Owners can rise or fall based on their own merits, and when expenses are paid the remaining profits belong to the owners.  However, there are also disadvantages, such as the risk that the business will lose money, and responsibility for the business’s payroll and debt.  In addition to this stands business owners’ duties to their co-owners, be they partners in a partnership, shareholders in a corporation, or members in a limited liability company.

Under New Jersey business law, owners are placed in a special position of trust vis a vis their fellow owners, and the law thus imposes special responsibilities on them.  These responsibilities are known as “fiduciary duties.”

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DunceEarlier this year the Enquirer published an embarrassing story with text messages and photos of Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon and the richest man in the world, with his mistress.  Bezos also owns the Washington Post, which has investigated the Enquirer’s relationship with President Trump, and published critical stories about the Enquirer.  The same day the story was published, Bezos and his wife, the author MacKenzie Bezos, announced their divorce.  Bezos tasked his security chief, Gavin de Becker, with investigating how the Enquirer obtained the text messages and photos.

Then, on February 7, Bezos posted a blog post accusing the Enquirer of threatening to post more embarrassing photos and text messages if Bezos did not drop the investigation.  Bezos claimed that the threats were made by a lawyer for the Enquirer through email.

And thus, if true, the National Enquirer has taught us all a great lesson about what not to do in negotiations.

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baby-2242638__340-300x210New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination gives employees some of the strongest legal protections against discrimination and harassment in the nation.  However, these protections have recently been expanded.  In one of his last acts as governor, Chris Christie signed the Legislature’s amendment to the Law Against Discrimination its protections to include mothers who are breastfeeding.

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination

The Law Against Discrimination was enacted in 1945, placing New Jersey at the forefront in protecting employees’ from workplace discrimination.  Indeed, the Law Against Discrimination was the first statewide civil rights enforcement law.  Since then it has been amended many times by legislation and court decisions, always expanding and strengthening New Jersey’s protections against discrimination.

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New Jersey solid waste transportation is highly regulated by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”). While most businesses in New Jersey require some level of truck-3503831__340-300x200regulation, licensing, and/or registration, garbage hauling is a particularly scrutinized industry.

Part of the authorization process (and ongoing regulation) of solid waste transporters includes obtaining a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (“CPCN”). A CPCN provides the State with specific information regarding a hauler’s operations including hours of operations, owner information, exact fees and rates charged by that hauler to customers, territories (counties) served, and the financial condition of the company. Once a CPCN is obtained, the transporter must file annual reports (also known as utility reports) to update all of that information.

The requirement’s for a CPCN are set forth in the Solid Waste Utility Regulations.  These rules and regulations are quite specific and far-reaching into many of the operations of the transportation company.

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the-dollar-3125419__340-300x200Some of the areas in which businesses make their largest investments of time and expense are trade secrets (including customer lists) customer relations and client development, and employee development.  However, these interests may conflict, especially when highly placed employees leave a firm.  This is an area of potentially bitter dispute in New Jersey business law and employment law.

Businesses have many trade secrets, but the most important of these is often information regarding its customers.  Because of intense competition, and the time, effort and expense which businesses invest in cultivating their clients, customer lists, especially customer lists in service industries, are protected by the common law and New Jerseys Trade Secrets Act.

Businesses also invest significant expense in training and developing their employees, even aside from salary and benefits.  Thus, New Jersey business law and employment law imposed a duty of loyalty on employees, even those who do not have a restrictive covenant.  This duty of loyalty prohibits employees from competing with their employers while they are employed.  An employee may not induce her employer’s employees or customers to leave her employer, nor may she appropriate her employer’s trade secrets.  The employee may plan to leave, and if the employee does not have a restrictive covenant she can even seek employment with competitors or even set up a business entity which will compete with the employer after she leaves. However, the employee cannot go beyond the planning stage while still employed.

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New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act provides some of the strongest consumer protections in the United States.  These protections have long been extended to consumers which tow-truck-309953__340-300x176are business entities.  It is one of the strongest of New Jersey’s business law.  However, the parameters of when a business, as opposed to a person, was acting as a “consumer,”have yielded conflicting decisions.  The Supreme Court of New Jersey has recently issued an important decision affirming business to business consumer fraud, and establishing a test to clarify when a business should be considered to be a “consumer,” and when goods are considered “merchandise” invoking the protection under the Consumer Fraud Act.

The All The Way Towing Case: Background

On January 24, 2019, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued its opinion in the case of All the Way Towing, LLC v. Bucks County International, Inc.  In that case All the Way Towing (ATW) , a limited liability company in the towing business, ordered an “International” brand all wheel drive truck from Bucks County International, Inc. (BCI), with an autoloader tow body manufactured by another company, Dynamic Towing Equipment and Manufacturing, Inc. (Dynamic).  ATW spent several months negotiating the price and specifications with BCI’s salesperson, and then placed a $10,000 deposit.

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