Maxfield v. Board of Education

In reversing the judgment of the Appellate Division, the Court today disregards the virtually immutable principle that the mandate of an appellate court must be obeyed by the tribunal to which it is directed. Flanigan v. McFeely, 20 N.J. 414, 420-21 (1956). It tolerates the State Board of Education’s refusal to obey the Appellate Division’s mandate in this case, accepting instead the State Board’s contention that our decision in Rutherford Education Association v. Rutherford Board of Education, 99 N.J. 8 (1985), constituted an intervening change in the law. That contention simply does not…