Susan J. Steele

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Susan J. Steele was a judge on the Vicinage 2 Superior Court in New Jersey. She served on the Civil Division. She was appointed by Governor Chris Christie in June 2011. Steele retired in 2017 when she turned 70, which is the age of mandatory retirement in New Jersey.^[1]

Education[edit]

Steele received her J.D. from Pace University.^[1]

Career[edit]

Steele worked at the United States Attorney’s Office in Newark as the chief of the civil division from 2004 until her judicial appointment in 2011. She is also a registered nurse.^[2]

Noteworthy cases[edit]

Lawyer faces $150,000 judgment because client skipped bond (2015)

Matthew Jeon took on Zerui Huang's case. Huang, a Chinese national studying in the United States, was arrested and charged with a sexual assault. He was given bond, but he had to surrender his passport in order to be released. Huang did so. The court held the passport until it agreed to return it to Huang temporarily so he could renew his driver's license. While Huang had the passport, he allegedly made a copy and then returned the original to the court. Huang used the copy, which China accepts, to return to his native land. When he did not make his next court appearance, or the subsequent ones, the bail bond company, Callahan Bail Bond, sued Jeon for the money it lost when Huang skipped town. Callahan claims that Jeon knew what Huang had planned. Jeon failed to respond to Callahan's complaint in time, and Judge Susan J. Steele of the Vicinage 2 Superior Court entered a default judgment against Jeon in the amount of $150,000, what Callahan lost.

Jeon eventually tried to respond and filed multiple motions to vacate the judgment, but Judge Steele denied the motion each time. Judges Amy O'Connor and Marie Simonelli, however, ruled that Judge Steele was in error when she refused to grant Jeon's motion to vacate. According to the judges, motions to vacate are to be considered liberally and granted if there is a meritorious defense to the accusations. Here, the judges said that Jeon presented a good defense in his answer, which he was never allowed to file, and he did not behave in an insolent manner in failing to respond. In short, it was a mistake.

The judges vacated the judgment and remanded the case back to the superior court for further proceedings on the merits of the case. Huang is still a fugitive.

Articles:

NJ Law Journal, "Court Voids $150K Judgment Against Lawyer Whose Client Fled," April 6, 2015
Justia, "Callahan Bail Bonds Seneca Insurance V. Matthew Jeon, Esq," April 6, 2015

External links[edit]

New Jersey Courts, "Bergen Vicinage," accessed May 7, 2014

Footnotes[edit]

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 New Jersey Courts, "Judges' biographies," archived May 7, 2014
↑ Asbury Park Press, "Christie nominates four judges from Bergen County," February 15, 2011

New Jersey courts

Federal courts:

Third Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of New Jersey • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of New Jersey

State courts:

New Jersey Supreme Court • New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division • New Jersey Superior Courts • New Jersey Municipal Courts • New Jersey Tax Court

State resources:

Courts in New Jersey • New Jersey judicial elections • Judicial selection in New Jersey

[bio-1] 1.0 ^1.1 New Jersey Courts, "Judges' biographies," archived May 7, 2014

[2] Asbury Park Press, "Christie nominates four judges from Bergen County," February 15, 2011