EMERSON—Attorneys for Emerson Redevelopers Urban Renewal (ERUR) have requested a postponement of the Sept. 3 trial date in the borough’s long-delayed $500,000 lawsuit against them. This is one of several postponements requested by ERUR and JMF Properties since the lawsuit was filed over four years ago.
Sources told Pascack Press that, as of press time, Superior Court Judge Peter Geiger’s office had not officially responded to the defendants’ request, though approval is expected. In addition to trial postponements, at least two settlement conferences in 2023 and 2024 were also canceled.
The Sept. 3 trial date was set after ERUR filed eight motions in October 2023 to exclude specific borough testimony from trial. These motions were to be decided at the Sept. 3 court date. Public court filings are available on the New Jersey Ecourts System under Case Number BER-L-003359-20.
The borough in its lawsuit seeks to recoup $500,000 in construction services related to the former ambulance property deeded to ERUR for the Emerson Station downtown redevelopment.
In late 2022, the Borough Council augmented the corps’ services by contracting with Holy Name Hospital for supplemental coverage. Meanwhile, the volunteer corps has partly operated out of a home on Locust Avenue while the ambulance is housed at DPW headquarters, on Palisade Avenue, officials said.
Borough attorney John McCann told Pascack Press on Aug. 14 that the defendants had requested the new postponement.