Case Name: WILFRED TANTUM, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, v. CHARLES D. BINZ, DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT
Court: New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New Jersey
Decision Date: 1981-05-13
Citations: 186 N.J. Super. 296
Docket Number: 
Parties: WILFRED TANTUM, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, v. CHARLES D. BINZ, DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Jersey Superior Court Reports
Volume: 186
Pages: 296–307

Head Matter:
WILFRED TANTUM, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, v. CHARLES D. BINZ, DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT.
Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division
Argued March 10, 1981
Decided May 13, 1981.
Before Judges BOTTER, KING and McELROY.
Laurence M. McHeffey argued the cause for appellant (Hanlon, Dempsey & McHeffey, attorneys).
Hugh Porter argued the cause for respondent (Enright, Porter & Lenney, attorneys; Michael P. McGrath, on the brief).

Opinion:
The opinion of the court was delivered by
KING, J. A. D.
On July 22, 1977 plaintiff filed suit for personal injuries arising from a March 31, 1975 automobile accident. Defendant pleaded the two-year statute of limitations in bar. N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2. Plaintiff rejoined, claiming that defendant was equitably estopped to plead the bar of the statute.
Upon defendant's request a nonjury evidentiary hearing was held before trial by Judge McGann limited to the propriety of defendant's plea of the statute of limitations as a valid defense to the action. We conclude that this was a proper approach to the essentially equitable statute of limitations issue. See Lopez v. Swyer, 62 N.J. 267 (1973); see, also, Fitzgerald v. Wright, 155 N.J.Super. 494 (App.Div.1978).
After hearing the evidence Judge McGann concluded that equitable considerations did not obviate the defense plea that the statute had run and he dismissed the action. He concluded that defendant's agent did not intentionally lull plaintiff into sleeping on his rights. Plaintiff appeals, contending, in essence, that no reasonable view of the evidence supports the result reached. We disagree and affirm , for the reasons expressed in Judge McGann's factual analysis of the proofs presented to him. While these proofs were susceptible of conflicting interpretation, his view of the facts after seeing and hearing the witnesses finds support in the record. We therefore must affirm. Rova Farms Resort v. Investors Ins. Co., 65 N.J. 474, 483-484 (1974). Unless we have "a definite conviction that the judge went so wide of the mark, a mistake must have been made," we are duty bound to accept his factual findings. State v. Johnson, 42 N.J. 146, 162 (1964).
The trial judge found plaintiff to be "an intelligent individual, well-oriented, self-possessed, able to do things well... There is no sense at all of incompetency involved in the case." The judge found as a fact that Lang, the independent adjuster for defendant's automobile liability carrier, who exclusively dealt with plaintiff and his mother, "never in any way told the Tantums to sue, never said don't sue, wait, wait, don't do anything, hold off. There was nothing like that." Indeed, the statute of limitations was not discussed at all by the parties. The judge further found that "in no way did Mr. Lang ever try to discourage Mr. Tantum from going to a lawyer." The judge accepted Lang's credibility when he concluded: "[W]hen he says I [Lang] in no way mentioned settlement, I find that the probability is that this is so, that he did not mention settlement."
The carrier and Lang, Judge McGann found, consistently viewed this as a no liability case. "I think he is entitled to that view." The judge found:
That was a realistic view because as I read the statements, the case happened in a very simple way.
Mr. Binz was a friend of Mr. Tantum.
They got in Mr. Binz' car after having a meal at Mrs. Tantum's house.
They started down the road and had gone but a short distance and there was a curve and both agree that when Mr. Binz went around the curve he was doing 20 to 25 miles per hour.
Mr. Tantum was a passenger and as they went around the curve for some reason or other the door on his side opened up and he fell out of the car and was hurt, seriously hurt.
But, if you came to a trial of that and somebody said Mr. Binz is negligent, I think everyone would be left scratching their heads and say, well, what did he do wrong? He didn't close the door for Mr. Tantum when Mr. Tantum got in the car.
Mr. Tantum got in the car and apparently no one suggests that it was a door that had always fallen open.
It simply was an accident that happened and the word accident, I think, by derivation means nobody's fault, a happening that no one is responsible for.
This liability picture supported the judge's conclusion that there never were any negotiations that could have lulled plaintiff into an assurance of payment at the end of the trail. Again, the judge specifically found that "no one ever told them not to go to a lawyer or not to seek legal advice. They ultimately did so, but they did so a little too late. That's what the statute of limitations is all about."
In several letters to his principal, Banner Casualty Insurance Company, Lang made reference to maintaining "control over the claimant." From our analysis of the judge's opinion and the complete record, we conclude that the judge found nothing invidious about this asserted "control." In the letter of February 11, 1977 Lang reported:
If we stay in frequent contact with the claimant we should be able to perceive when the claimant's patience is exhausted and he will seek the services of an Attorney. If this comes to pass, it is my opinion that we should consider tendering a "take it or leave it" settlement offer of $4,000.00 to $4,500.00. It is my opinion that this offer should only be tendered if it becomes apparent that an Attorney will become involved otherwise.
This effort at "control" was not to keep plaintiff away from an attorney but to preserve the opportunity to negotiate a settlement, if the company ever extended any authority, before an attorney was actually engaged. We cannot say that this was an unreasonable interpretation of the evidence on this record where the judge found that Lang "was not bugging, so to speak, the Tantums" and the "contacts between the parties were initiated principally by Mrs. Tantum calling Mr. bang."
Accepting the factual findings made by Judge McGann, the legal authorities in which plaintiff seeks solace are not persuasive in his favor. In Friedman v. Friendly Ice Cream Co., 133 N.J.Super. 333 (App.Div.1975), this court held only that plaintiff was entitled to a factual hearing on whether equitable considerations barred the defense of limitation of action. There plaintiff-appellant had shown by affidavit in unsuccessfully resisting summary judgment that a factfinder could find that (a) he had a valid claim, (b) defendants had, in effect, admitted liability, (c) offers had been made, (d) negotiations were intentionally protracted by defendants "so as to have the statute of limitations run against plaintiff's claim" and (e) defendants were guilty of unconscionable conduct. Id. at 337.
In the present case the factfinder has already heard the evidence and found against plaintiff. Cf. Peloso v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co., 56 N.J. 514 (1970) (fire policy), and Bowler v. Fidelity & Cas. Co. of N.Y., 53 N.J. 313 (1969) (accident policy), where the Supreme Court held that equitable considerations entitled first-party claimants to escape the bar where their own carriers acted unconscionably in handling their claims, contrary to "the highest burden of good faith" the carriers owed to their insured defendant. Id. at 327.
Here, plaintiff had a factual hearing and the findings went against him. In the adversarial context presented by a third-party auto claim, the judge found factually that plaintiff was not misled into a tardy assertion of his claim. Rather, the judge found that plaintiff slept on his right to file suit on a very doubtful claim which had never been accepted for payment by the alleged tortfeasor's insurer. The evidence supports the finding.
We affirm.
In his signed statement plaintiff described the accident as follows:
On March 31, 1975 Charles Binz had dinner at my house and after-wards we were going back to his apartment so he could get a change of clothes and then we were going out. This is when the accident occurred when we were going to Charles' apartment. We were traveling towards Route 526 on Yellow Meeting House Road, Charles was driving, and I was sitting in the front passenger seat. When I got into the car I pulled the door shut and assumed it had latched properly; I've ridden in his car a number of times and never had a problem with this door. Charley slowed down as we approached the curve in the road, I'd say he was going approximately 25 m.p.h. as we entered the curve. Also, there are no seat belts in his car. It all happened so fast, he no sooner entered the curve and my door flew open; I tried to grab onto the seat to hold myself from falling out of the car but the force was too much. I fell out of the car and onto the road, point of impact was the road and my right hip, I hit the road and came to rest right where I hit, I did not roll over. Charley pulled the car over and then backed the car up to me and he helped me get into the car, I could not walk without help. We drove back to my parents house and my mother called the Allentown First Aid Squad.
In his signed statement defendant described the accident as follows:
The weather at the time was clear, roads were dry, visibility was good. It was just getting dark at this time. In my car besides me driving was one passenger sitting in the front passenger seat, his name is Wilfred Tantum, Jr. of R.D. # 2, Cream Ridge, New Jersey. We had just finished having dinner at his parents house, where he lives; he is separated from his wife but not divorced yet. We left his parents house and were driving over to my apartment when the accident occurred. Yellow Meeting House Road is a two lane country road, very narrow. I was heading towards Route 526 when I approached a curve in the road, the road curved to the left. I slowed down to approximately 20 m.p.h. as I entered the curve; I had no sooner entered the curve when the passenger door flew open and my passenger fell out of the car and onto the roadway. As soon as this happened I pulled the car over to the side and got out to go see if he was injured.