NEWARK — John Paleski left for a trip to South America in September 2009 with strict instructions to his ex-wife that his teenaged sons weren't allowed in his house while he was away.

But, with Paleski out of the country, his 17-year-old son threw a party for friends at his Essex Fells home, court papers say. When Paleski returned home two weeks later, he says he found a back window broken and empty beer and champagne bottles strewn across the property.

Two weeks later, he said he discovered some $38,000 in jewelry and $200 in cash missing, the papers say.

Paleski sued his ex-wife, Jonna Cali, in state Superior Court in Newark in 2010, accusing her of “negligently supervising” their son in an attempt to recoup his losses.

On Tuesday a state appeals court rejected Paleski’s claim and upheld Judge Francine Schott’s decision to toss out the lawsuit.

There is no law allowing one parent to sue another for a child’s misdeeds, a three-judge panel of Appellate Division judges ruled.

“The judge was correct that as a matter of law there is no authority permitting a negligent supervision cause of action between parents of a child, and that as a matter of public policy, the tort of negligent supervision of a child does not permit a parent to sue the other parent for damages the child caused,” the judges wrote.

Paleski’s attorneys cited a case from New Jersey in which parents were held responsible after an underage partygoer was injured driving home from a party in their home. In that case, the appeals court said parents had a duty to the public to supervise the teenagers in their home while they were away.

The difference, according to Cali’s attorney, Lewis Markowitz, is that in that case someone else – not one of the parents – was making a claim of negligence.

“The big difference is that in the other case there was harm to a third party and that’s why I knew this case didn’t have legs,” Markowitz said. “This is just between two parents.”

Markowitz said the son denies his father’s claim that jewelry and cash were taken from the house during the party.

The couple were divorced in 1997 after eight years of marriage, the decision says. They have joint legal custody of their two sons, who live primarily with their mother.

The year before the alleged incident from 2009, Paleski allowed one of the sons to hold a card game at his house while he was away only to discover later that the boy decided to hold a party with friends instead, the decision says.

“He allegedly told (Cali) that he thereafter would not allow his sons in his home while he was away,” the judges write.

Neither Paleski nor his attorney could be reached for comment today. Cali declined to comment on the decision, citing the recent death of her father, New Jersey real estate developer John Cali.

John Cali was the former chairman of Mack-Cali and co-founder of one of the nation’s leading real estate investment trust firms. He died Saturday at the age of 95.

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