In March 2015, plaintiff Donell Prince left his rooming house where he lived and noticed that there was snow on the common walkways of the rooming house property and the adjoining public sidewalks. Plaintiff decided to walk in the street because snow had been plowed from the street into the sidewalks. He fell and landed on his backside and side of his body. One of the issues in Prince v. City of Englewood, 2021 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 247 (App. Div. February 12, 2021) was whether the City of Englewood could be liable for plaintiff’s fall on the public street because of snow conditions.
Plaintiff alleged that Englewood was negligent in failing to remove the snow from the public sidewalks and streets and this negligence caused him to fall and suffer injuries. At the trial court level, Englewood successfully filed a motion for summary judgment, obtaining a dismissal of the lawsuit as to it. This appeal ensued.
The Appellate Division pointed out that the well settled case law under the New Jersey Supreme Court case of Miehl v. Darpino gives public entities in the State absolute immunity for all snow removal activities. As the Supreme Court later stated in Bligen v. Jersey City Housing Authority, “[t]he common law immunity was based primarily on the limitless liability that could be imposed on an entity, such as a state, county, municipality, or turnpike authority, that had the responsibility to clean up numerous streets and roads.” Subsequent case law, after the Tort Claims Act was enacted, held that the Tort Claims Act did not change the common law snow removal immunity available to a public entity.
Thus, the Appellate Division found that summary judgment was properly granted in favor of the City of Englewood. Plaintiff’s allegation was that he slipped and fell on a public street because of snow conditions. The Court held that “because Englewood enjoys immunity from liability for its snow removal activities, it cannot be held liable for plaintiff’s alleged injuries.” Thus, the trial court’s decision, granting summary judgment as to the defendant Englewood was affirmed by the Appellate Division.
Betsy G. Ramos, Esq. is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and Co-Chair of the Litigation Group. She is an experienced litigator with over 30 years’ experience handling diverse matters. Her practice areas include tort defense, insurance coverage, Tort Claims Act and civil rights defense, business litigation, employment litigation, construction litigation, estate litigation and general litigation.
