SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY
APPELLATE DIVISION
A-7650-95T2
ADA ROSSI,
Plaintiff-Respondent,
v.
BOROUGH OF HADDONFIELD,
and JOHN DOE PROPERTY OWNER,
Defendants-Appellants.
_________________________________________
Argued January 29, 1997 - Decided February 19, 1997
Before Judges Shebell, P.G. Levy and Braithwaite.
On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey,
Law Division, Camden County.
W. Thomas McBride argued the cause for appellant
(Crawshaw, Mayfield, Riordan, Turner, O'Mara, Donnelly,
Thomas & McBride, attorneys; Lynn M. Burgess, on the
brief).
John D. Bordi argued the cause for respondent
(Friedman, Bafundo & Porter, attorneys; Mr.
Bordi, on the brief).
The opinion of the court was delivered by
SHEBELL, P.J.A.D.
This matter comes to us on leave to appeal granted from the denial of the motion of defendant, Borough of Haddonfield, for summary judgment. The complaint of plaintiff, Ada Rossi, alleged the Borough negligently maintained a municipal parking lot in a dangerous condition causing her to fall and sustain serious injuries. We reverse and remand for dismissal of the complaint
on the grounds of common law snow removal immunity.
On January 17, 1994, when plaintiff arrived at work, she
noticed that the Borough parking lot, where she had a permit to
park, was icy. It appeared in this same condition the week
before the accident, at which time a co-worker called to inform
the Borough of this icy condition. Plaintiff left work later in
the day on an errand for her employer and fell as she was
unlocking her car. It was just beginning to snow at the time she
fell. She fractured her ankle and despite multiple surgeries,
she is permanently injured.
The Borough owns the parking lot which, as all municipal
parking lots in the Borough, required either the use of a parking
meter or the purchase of a parking permit. There is a designated
area for permit holders; however, it does not appear that permit
holders have a specifically numbered space in which only they may
park.
There had been light rain on Friday January 14, 1994, which
turned to ice after the weather turned colder. The cold weather
continued on Saturday January 15, 1994 and Sunday January 16,
1994, causing the ice to remain through the weekend. Snow began
in Haddonfield about mid-morning on Monday January 17, 1994. The
Borough stated in its answers to interrogatories that the lot was
sanded on January 15, 1994. However, in his deposition, the
Borough's Superintendent of Public Works could not specifically
say that this parking lot had been sanded the weekend prior to
the accident.
The Borough has between seven and eight full time employees
who are assigned to the Streets Division, which has the function
of snow removal and sanding. There are between seventy and
ninety miles of roads which the Borough must maintain, not
including sidewalks adjacent to municipal buildings and parking
lots. The Borough has developed a priority system for snow
removal under which the roads are attended to first, then areas
adjacent to the entities providing emergency services, and
finally the parking lots are cleared and/or sanded.
In denying the Borough's motion for summary judgment, the
judge stated:
I read the tort immunity statute the same
way. It talks about streets and highways.
This is not a street and highway. The
government chooses to get itself involved in
a revenue generating business, running a
parking lot. They put themselves in the same
position as Kinneys or any of the other
parking lot operators. If they were
operating a delicatessen, would they have
immunity? I would think not. But the fact
that it involves weather doesn't change the
situation whatsoever. So the motion will be
denied.
When the Borough moved for reconsideration, the judge declined to
vacate his previous order and analogized the Borough's operation
of the parking lot as akin to the operation of a private business
or commercial landlord.
The New Jersey Legislature enacted the New Jersey Tort
Claims Act ("TCA", "Act"), N.J.S.A. 59:1-1 to 5-6, to reestablish
immunity for public entities that had been gradually eroded by
judicial decisions. Rochinsky v. New Jersey Dep't of Transp.,
110 N.J. 399, 404 (1988). The Legislature specifically provided
that a court should first determine "`whether an immunity applies
and if not, should liability attach.'" Id. at 408 (quoting
N.J.S.A. 59:2-1 Task Force Comment). "The burden of proof in
establishing the applicability of the immunities rests with the
public entity." Bligen v. Jersey City Housing Authority,
131 N.J. 124, 128 (1993). When ruling on whether a public entity is
immune, we must determine the cause of the accident and then
decide if the Legislature intended to immunize the public entity
from liability under those conditions. Saldana v. DiMedio,
275 N.J. Super. 488, 496 (App. Div. 1994). The Borough contends that
common law snow removal immunity applies to bar suit in this
case.
R. 4:46-2 governs the disposition by summary judgment.
Summary judgment should be granted
if the pleadings, depositions, answers to
interrogatories and admissions on file,
together with the affidavits, if any, show
that there is no genuine issue as to any
material fact challenged and that the moving
party is entitled to a judgment or order as a
matter of law.
[R. 4:46-2(c).]
The proper inquiry is "`whether the evidence presents a
sufficient disagreement to require submission to a jury or
whether it is so one-sided that one party must prevail as a
matter of law.'" Brill v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of America,
142 N.J. 520, 536 (1995)(quoting Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc.
477 U.S. 242, 251-52,
106 S. Ct. 2505, 2512,
91 L.Ed.2d 202, 214
(1986)). If the Borough is entitled to immunity, summary
judgment should have been granted as the Borough would "`prevail
as a matter of law.'" Ibid.
Common law snow removal immunity was established in Miehl v.
Darpino,
53 N.J. 49 (1968). Plaintiff, a pedestrian, was struck
by a car when his path to the sidewalk was blocked by a snowbank
created by city workers. Id. at 50-51. He sued the city,
alleging that the workers had created a dangerous condition.
Ibid. The Supreme Court recognized the dangers the accumulation
of snow presents to the general public, but explained that to
hold a public entity liable for negligent snow clearing would
essentially require that entity to "broom sweep" the areas from
which they removed snow. Id. at 53. Thereafter, in Rochinsky,
supra, the Court made it clear that this common law immunity was
not invalidated by the enactment of the TCA. Rochinsky, supra,
110 N.J. at 402.
The facts here are clearly within those contemplated by the
Miehl Court in establishing snow removal immunity. "The unusual
traveling conditions following a snowfall are obvious to the
public. Individuals can and should proceed to ambulate on a
restricted basis, and if travel is necessary, accept the risks
inherent at such a time." Miehl, supra, 53 N.J. at 54. We
recognize that the Borough presented evidence that its Streets
Division sanded the parking lot over the weekend prior to
plaintiff's injury. However, even if the parking lot remained in
a dangerous condition due to the negligent sanding by the Borough
employees, snow removal immunity would apply to bar recovery.
Negligent sanding is well within the remedial activity related to
snow removal contemplated by the immunity. Farias v. Township of
Westfield, ___ N.J. Super. ___, ___ (App. Div. 1997) (slip op. at
8).
Plaintiff also claims that the Borough's failure to warn of
the icy condition gives rise to liability in this case. However,
the Court in Rochinsky, supra, held only that a cause of action
"unrelated to snow removal activity" may be maintained under
N.J.S.A. 59:4-4, if the conduct amounted to "palpably
unreasonable failure to warn of a dangerous condition." 110 N.J.
at 415 n.7, 415-17 (emphasis added). The failure to warn here is
indeed related to snow removal activity and not an "unrelated"
condition as in Meta v. Township of Cherry Hill,
152 N.J. Super. 228 (App. Div.), certif. denied,
75 N.J. 587 (1977) and McGowan
v. Borough of Eatontown,
151 N.J. Super. 440 (App. Div. 1977).
See Farias, supra, ___ N.J. Super. at ___ (slip op. at 5-6). In
both Meta and McGowan, we found that the public entity's failure
to warn of a dangerous condition required submission to a jury.
Meta, supra, 152 N.J. Super. at 232; McGowan, supra, 151 N.J.
Super. at 448. The factor present in Meta and McGowan which is
absent from this case, is that the dangerous condition was
contributed to by circumstances unrelated to the weather. See
Farias, supra, ___ N.J. Super. at ___ (slip op. at 5-6). Here,
the condition was caused solely by the weather and there are no
allegations that the parking lot was improperly constructed or
had improper drainage mechanisms.
Further, the icy conditions were not limited to the parking
lot in question; presumably, roads throughout the Borough were in
a similar state as a result of the precipitation and subsequent
low temperatures during the days preceding plaintiff's injury.
Finally, as the Borough has indicated, because of limited
resources and the large area it must attend to, the roads and
areas adjacent to municipal buildings and buildings which house
emergency services are tended to before the municipal parking
lots. It is not for the courts to second guess the municipality
in such matters. See Amelchenko v. Freehold Borough,
42 N.J. 541, 549 (1964).
Plaintiff also maintains that summary judgment was correctly
denied based on the holding in Bligen, supra,
131 N.J. 124. In
that case, the plaintiff, who lived in a complex owned by the
Jersey City Housing Authority ("JCHA"), slipped on the ice and
fell as she stepped off the curb into the parking lot of the
complex. Id. at 126-27. The Supreme Court declined to extend
common law snow removal immunity to the JCHA for two main
reasons. Id. at 126. First, the Court recognized that "[t]he
theme running through both the pre and post-Tort Claims Act cases
is that the imposition of liability on public entities
responsible for the removal of snow on a network of ... roadways
could be limitless." Id. at 133. Thus, the Court reasoned that
the "policy reasons behind the common-law immunity for public
entities for snow-removal activities do not apply to a public
housing authority, which has a finite area from which to remove
the snow." Id. at 131. Secondly, the Court refused to apply
snow removal immunity to the JCHA due to the already established
law regarding the tort liability of municipal landlords, i.e.,
that they have "a duty to maintain the premises to prevent
foreseeable injuries." Id. at 134 (citation omitted).
Therefore, the holding in Bligen by its own rationale is totally
inapplicable here.
Plaintiff has attempted to classify the Borough as a
"landlord" by virtue of the sale of parking permits in order to
come within the Bligen rationale. There is, however, no
landlord-tenant relationship created by the Borough regulating
parking through meters and permits. Plaintiff gained no property
right as a consequence of the purchase of a parking permit.
Plaintiff was not promised and need not receive any greater
protection against weather and its consequences, simply because
she procured the right to park in a designated area.
The judge denied summary judgment based upon his comparison
of the Borough's permit parking lot to a commercial business. We
reject this basis. N.J.S.A. 39:4-197 provides for municipal
regulation of parking within the municipality.
[A] municipality may pass ordinances or
resolutions ... regulating special conditions
existent in the municipality on the
subjects....
g. Regulating the parking of vehicles upon land owned or leased and maintained by the municipality, a parking authority or the board of education of a school district,
including any lands devoted to the public
parking of vehicles, entrances thereto and
exits therefrom
[N.J.S.A. 39:4-197(1)g.]
The regulation of parking lots is an exercise of the
Borough's police power. Garden State Racing Ass'n v. Cherry Hill
Tp.,
42 N.J. 454, 461 (1964); State v. Kraus,
225 N.J. Super. 312, 315 (App. Div. 1988). This regulation has taken the form of
requiring the purchase of a parking permit or the payment of a
parking meter fare. Revenue derived from this regulation may be
used to defray the cost of the regulation, but a municipality may
not regulate in order to raise revenue. Board of Commissioners
of City of Newark v. Local Government Board of New Jersey,
133 N.J.L. 513, 515 (1945). Therefore, the regulation of parking by
meter or permit does not transform the Borough's actions into
those of a commercial business. It must be presumed that the
Borough has acted lawfully, and plaintiff offers no evidence to
the contrary.
We reverse and remand. The trial court shall enter summary
judgment in favor of defendant, based upon the application of
common law snow removal immunity.