In approximately 5 pages (12 point Times New Roman font, double-spaced; it is permissible to exceed 5
pages if desired), please prepare and submit a mock appellate legal brief on behalf of NoKe seeking
reversal of the trial court’s JNOV in favor of Hanna and the reinstatement of NoKe’s $2,750,000 jury
verdict. The appellate brief should argue that the Cell Phone Deal was an enforceable contract which
Hanna subsequently breached, causing NoKe damages. The argument should be broken up into two points:
(I) that the trial court erred in granting Hanna’s JNOV because NoKe had proven with substantial evidence
that there was an oral agreement between Hanna and Pelisson that NoKe would receive 30% ownership
interests in their (i.e., Hanna’s and Pelisson’s) future projects together with COLM in the Northeast and (II)
the trial court erred in granting Hanna’s motion for JNOV because there was sufficient evidence of
consideration to support the oral contract. Your points should integrate and stress the high standard of
review for JNOVs in New Jersey. Please do NOT make arguments regarding the statute of frauds or
promissory estoppel in your briefs – rather, assume these arguments have been taken out of the equation for
procedural reasons.
Your brief should be based on the factual background, procedural history and applicable law
provided in this document. It should also address and counter Hanna’s arguments and testimony in
favor of the JNOV as described Section V of this document. There is no need to cite any external
statutes or cases in this assignment that are not included in this document or to perform any external
legal research – all that is required of you is to review, consult and use the information contained in
this document in drafting your brief.
There is no required citation format for your briefs – all that I ask is that I am able to discern to what
statute or case you are referring to when you make a citation. You can simply use the same format I used in
Section IV (Applicable Law) of this document when citing or referring to cases or statutes, or you can use
another easily identifiable way of referencing these sources (such as parenthetical citations).
For your reference, here is a sample appellate brief that is made available to the public by the New Jersey
court system: https://njcourts.gov/forms/11898_create_brief_sample_formal.pdf (this is likely the best
exemplar brief to use as a template). Here is another relatively simple exemplar appellate brief:
http://www.co.lucas.oh.us/DocumentCenter/View/60558/Sample-brief-for-Sixth
District). For some more complex examples, you can peruse this website from Fordham University School
of Law: https://www.fordham.edu/info/23154/andrew_kent/8849/appellate_briefs.
You do NOT need to include a caption, table of contents, table of appendix or statement of facts in your
brief. Rather, all that is necessary is a brief preliminary statement (or this can be phrased as summary of
argument), a brief procedural history, your two-point argument section (this should make up the vast
majority of your brief), and a brief conclusion. A short standard of review section before the argument
section is optional.
Sample Solution