03-2-5408 Capital Finance Co. of Delaware Valley, Inc. v. Asterbadi , App. Div. (per curiam) (5 pp.) In the first appeal arising out of the ongoing dispute between the parties, who hold title to a residential property and the single-family residence thereon as tenants in common, the Appellate Division held that defendant, who retained possession of the property, had effectively ousted plaintiff and, therefore, is accountable to plaintiff for one-half of the imputed rental value of the property less offsets for payments to preserve the property. On remand to determine the parties’ respective obligations, the trial court directed that any dispute the parties could not resolve must be submitted to binding arbitration. The panel now reverses, finding that the judge did not have the authority to compel the parties, who had no agreement to arbitrate, to submit their disputes to binding arbitration. [Decided Sept. 30, 2009.]
AUTOMOBILES — ACCIDENT LIABILITY — EVIDENCE
05-2-5378 Navarro v. Louder , App. Div. (per curiam) (11 pp.) Plaintiff appeals the no-cause jury verdict in this automobile accident matter. The panel affirms, finding no basis to reverse the trial judge’s conclusion that there was evidence from which the jury could conclude that plaintiff’s vehicle entered defendant’s lane of traffic. Further, the panel finds that the trial judge did not err in permitting a diagram of the accident scene prepared by the State Police — which showed the point of impact to be predominantly in defendant’s lane — to be admitted into evidence. Although the testifying trooper did not prepare the diagram, it was prepared with his input and he essentially adopted it as an accurate portrayal of the results of his investigation. Further, where plaintiff made extensive use of the diagram, the basic tenets of the doctrines of “opening the door” and “curative admissibility” permitted the judge to admit the diagram into evidence. [Decided Sept. 28, 2009.]
