Case Name: LYUDMILA BLANK, PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT, v. CITY OF ELIZABETH AND CITY OF ELIZABETH WATER & SEWER UTILITY, DEFENDANTS-APPELLANTS, AND MICHAEL AND BETSY FABRICANT, DEFENDANTS
Court: New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New Jersey
Decision Date: 1999-01-29
Citations: 318 N.J. Super. 106
Docket Number: 
Parties: LYUDMILA BLANK, PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT, v. CITY OF ELIZABETH AND CITY OF ELIZABETH WATER & SEWER UTILITY, DEFENDANTS-APPELLANTS, AND MICHAEL AND BETSY FABRICANT, DEFENDANTS.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Jersey Superior Court Reports
Volume: 318
Pages: 106–123

Head Matter:
723 A.2d 75
LYUDMILA BLANK, PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT, v. CITY OF ELIZABETH AND CITY OF ELIZABETH WATER & SEWER UTILITY, DEFENDANTS-APPELLANTS, AND MICHAEL AND BETSY FABRICANT, DEFENDANTS.
Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division
Submitted December 8, 1998
Decided January 29, 1999.
Kleiner, J., filed a dissenting opinion.
Before Judges PRESSLER, KLEINER and STEINBERG.
La Corte, Bundy & Varady, attorneys for appellants (Christopher J. Kinsella, on the brief).
Frank P. Beninato, Jr., attorney for respondent.

Opinion:
The opinion of the court was delivered by
PRESSLER, P.J.A.D.
This is a tort claims case. Defendants City of Elizabeth and City of Elizabeth Water & Sewer Utility (collectively Elizabeth) appeal from an order of the Law Division entered pursuant to N.J.S.A. 59:8-9 permitting plaintiff Lyudmila Blank to file a late notice of claim against them. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.
According to this meager record, plaintiff, a non-English speaking, sixty-one year old Russian immigrant, sustained serious injuries on February 27, 1997, when she tripped over a pipe protruding from the sidewalk abutting residential premises owned by defendants Michael and Betsy Fabricant. She retained counsel on April 1, 1997, after an office visit with an attorney conducted with the assistance of an interpreter. Counsel sent a notice of claim to the Fabricants, who turned it over to their homeowner's insurance carrier, Allstate Insurance Company. Apparently, a complaint was also filed against the Fabricants although we are not favored with a copy in this woefully inadequate record on appeal. In any event, according to counsel's certification filed in support of this motion, he was advised by Allstate on November 17,1997, that the offending pipe belonged to Elizabeth. This motion for leave to file a late claim pursuant to N.J.S.A 59:8-9 was filed less than a month later.
In his certification in support of the late-notice motion, counsel asserted that it had been his understanding that the pipe "was a pipe that was sticking through a sidewalk on the premises and had nothing to do with a public entity. This was partly because . of the plaintiffs inability to speak English and the use of a translator." He went on to recite that his first notice of public-entity involvement was his receipt from Allstate in November of "a copy of their investigation" indicating that the pipe was a "City water pipe and not a pipe that was furnished or installed by Michael and Betsy Fabricant." Counsel then asserted that "none of the information referred to in this investigation could have been concluded within the time provided by the requirements for 90 day notice under the Tort Claim Act."
Plaintiffs motion is more notable for the information omitted than the information provided. Allstate's investigation report was not included. No photograph of the site was furnished. No description of the pipe was provided describing either its physical characteristics or its location. No information was forthcoming as to counsel's own investigatory actions, if any. Nothing in the motion record provided a basis on which a court could conclude that the appearance or location of the pipe actually did or should have placed plaintiff on notice that it was a public utility pipe. Nothing in the record permitted a court to discern the nature or complexity of the investigation required to ascertain the pipe's purpose, function or ownership, and whether the question of ownership was reasonably discernable during the ninety-day period. And nothing in the answering brief filed by Elizabeth provides any further clues to these essential matters.
Despite the paucity of the record before him, the trial judge granted plaintiffs motion. Noting that the decision on the motion was a matter within his discretion, the judge concluded that "there is good explanation as to why the plaintiff was late primarily because of a language difficulty with the Russian plaintiff and a problem with the translation." Elizabeth appeals, contending that the statutory standard of "extraordinary circumstances" justifying the late notice was not met.
The Tort Claims Act, N.J.S.A. 59:1-1 to 59:12-3, requires notice of the claim to be presented to the public entity within ninety days following the accrual of the cause of action "except as otherwise provided in section 59:8-9____" N.J.S.A 59:8-8. As originally adopted as part of the Tort Claims Act, N.J.SA 59:8-9 accorded the court the discretion to permit a late notice of claim after the ninety-day period but within a year following accrual on a showing of "sufficient reasons" for the failure of timely filing provided that the public entity would not be "substantially prejudiced" thereby. As tort-claim jurisprudence developed, the "sufficient reasons" threshold came to be liberally construed and the special-reasons standard was indulgently applied. See, e.g., Lamb v. Global Landfill Reclaiming, 111 N.J. 134, 147, 543 A.2d 443 (1988); S.E.W. Friel Co. v. N.J. Turnpike Authority, 73 N.J. 107, 122, 373 A.2d 364 (1977). N.J.S.A 59:8-9 was, however, amended by L. 1994, c. 49, § 5, to raise the sufficient-reason threshold. The amendment no longer only requires a showing merely of sufficient reasons but rather "sufficient reasons constituting extraordinary circumstances." And the evident legislative purpose of this amendment was the abrogation of the liberal judicial construction of "sufficient reasons" standing alone. See, e.g., Ohlweiler v. Township of Chatham, 290 N.J.Super. 399, 404, 675 A.2d 1176 (App.Div.1996); Zois v. New Jersey Sports & Expo. Auth., 286 N.J.Super. 670, 674-675, 670 A.2d 92 (App.Div.1996). The amendment, however, fails to define "extraordinary circumstances," leaving to case-by-case determination the issue of whether that standard has been met. See, e.g., O'Neill v. City of Newark, 304 N.J.Super. 543, 553, 701 A.2d 717 (App.Div.1997).
We agree with Elizabeth that plaintiffs showing and the court's rationale were deficient. That is to say, there is no basis we can discern in this record supporting the conclusion that plaintiffs unfamiliarity with the English language was the cause of her failure to give timely notice, and no other reason was relied on by the trial judge. But we do not believe that is the end of the matter. It is evident from this record that this late-notice application was perfunctorily treated by both plaintiffs counsel and the court. Both were apparently aware that the 1994 amendment of N.J.SA 59:8-9 imposed a strict requirement upon the plaintiff to show, and the court to find, extraordinary circumstances justifying a late notice rather than merely a "sufficient reason." It appears, however, that both were nevertheless relying on the broad scope of judicial discretion that preceded the amendment and on the liberal exercise of that discretion then appropriate. Accordingly, not much searching argument or analysis was made by either.
Nevertheless, as perfunctory as this application was, it suggested on its face the existence of extraordinary circumstances which, inexplicably, neither counsel nor the court considered or pursued. The potential extraordinary circumstance that we perceive is raised by counsel's unartful and unsupported assertion in his certification, quoted above, that the information disclosed in Allstate's investigation report could not have been discovered within the ninety-day period. Our concern is that that contention may well be so. The difficulty, of course, is that although the issue was raised, albeit obliquely, the motion papers were too perfunctory and uninformative to permit an adequately based judicial finding of extraordinary circumstances, and the judge did not pursue this assertion. As we have said, we know nothing about the pipe. It was not described in the motion papers. There is no photograph of it. It is impossible to say, therefore, whether there was anything about its appearance that should reasonably have put plaintiff on notice that it did not belong to or had not been installed or placed in the sidewalk by the property owner. We are, however, satisfied that the mere fact of the presence of a pipe, of whose description, character and location we are completely ignorant, cannot, without more, be deemed to have put anyone on notice that it might belong to a water utility company. Perhaps the pipe had a cap on it identifying the owner. Perhaps it appeared to be a venting pipe or piece of pipe left by a plumber. And unless the pipe itself bore some sort of identifying mark, what was required, by way of investigation and by whom, to determine whose pipe it was? Defendant's carrier advised plaintiffs counsel in November 1997 that the pipe belonged to either Elizabeth or the Elizabeth Water & Sewer Utility. How long did it take the carrier, at whose disposal there are virtually unlimited investigative resources, to discover that fact and how did it do so? Was it correct in its assertion? What did plaintiffs attorney do in investigating the accident? We do not know that either. Did he act reasonably? Would a reasonable investigation have disclosed ownership of the pipe within the ninety-day period from the date of the accident? The point is that if there was, nothing intrinsic in the appearance of the pipe to suggest its ownership by a public utility and if a reasonable investigation by an attorney would not have disclosed the fact of that ownership within ninety days following the accident, an extraordinary circumstance might have been demonstrated, shifting to the proposed public-entity defendant the burden of showing, with specificity and not by general allegation, how the delay in being noticed unduly prejudiced its ability to defend itself on the merits.
None of the late-notice eases decided since the 1994 amendment involves a situation in which the public entity's ownership of the allegedly defective property or the other basis of its involvement in the matter was not known by the plaintiff from the time of the accident. Rather, other circumstances entirely personal to the would-be plaintiff were relied on as meeting the "extraordinary" threshold. See, e.g., Epstein v. State, 311 N.J.Super. 350, 359-360, 709 A.2d 1353 (App.Div.), certif. denied, 155 N.J. 589, 715 A.2d 992 (1998) (the falling of the ninetieth day on Yom Kippur held not an extraordinary circumstance despite the fact that the proposed plaintiff was an orthodox Jew); O'Neill v. City of Newark, supra, 304 N.J.Super. at 553, 701 A.2d 717 (plaintiff's awareness "of the circumstances surrounding and the severity of his injury" precluded extraordinary circumstances based on alleged psychological trauma resulting from the injury); Wood v. County of Burlington, 302 N.J.Super. 371, 378-380, 695 A.2d 377 (App.Div.1997) (plaintiffs ignorance of municipal forms for making claim and untoward delay in responding after being properly advised held not to constitute extraordinary circumstances); Ohlweiler, supra, 290 N.J.Super. at 405-406, 675 A.2d 1176 (substantial, unusual and unanticipated change in plaintiff's physical condition constituted extraordinary circumstances); Zois, supra, 286 N.J.Super. at 674-675, 670 A.2d 92 (negligence of plaintiff's attorney's secretary in misplacing file does not constitute extraordinary circumstances); Randazzo v. Township of Washington, 286 N.J.Super. 215, 221, 668 A.2d 1083 (App.Div.1995) (prompt oral notice to municipality excused failure of timely written notice and constituted an extraordinary circumstance).
There is an obvious distinction between knowing that one has a cause of action against a public entity and not pursuing it properly and timely for personal reasons and, on the other hand, not timely knowing or being chargeable with timely knowledge that a public entity may be liable for an injury. We are persuaded that the extraordinary-circumstances requirement is met where a plaintiff, within the ninety-day period, neither knows nor is chargeable with knowing of the existence of a cause of action against a public entity. This conclusion is nothing more than a specific application of the now familiar discovery rule of deferred accrual of a cause of action. Indeed, the discovery rule may well apply to the one-year limitation late-notice motion still provided for by the statute. See, e.g., Russo Farms v. Vineland Bd. of Educ., 144 N.J. 84, 106-108, 675 A.2d 1077 (1996). We see no reason why it should not also apply to the ninety-day period prescribed by the Legislature in typical accrual terms.
We thus view plaintiffs inadequate showing on the late-notice application as strongly suggestive of a discovery-rule extraordinary circumstance even though her motion was not definitively so framed. In the interest of substantial justice on the merits, the polestar of our system of the administration of civil justice, she should be accorded the opportunity to demonstrate now that she should not be reasonably chargeable with having discovered, during the ninety-day period following her injury, that the offending pipe belonged to a public entity. As the Supreme Court noted in S.E.W. Friel Co., supra, 73 N.J. at 122, 373 A.2d 364, the late-notice application should be considered in light of " 'the end that wherever possible cases may be heard on their merits, and any doubts which may exist should be resolved in favor of the application' " (quoting Viles v. California, 66 Cal.2d 24, 56 Cal.Rptr. 666, 669, 423 P.2d 818 (Sup.Ct.1967)). We do not believe that the 1994 amendment of N.J.S.A 59:8-9 diminishes the vitality of that principle. The amendment prescribes a substantive standard for decision that binds the court — namely, extraordinary circumstances. However, the issue before us is not substantive but, rather, procedural only. We do not regard it as a deviation from the legislative intention that motivated the amendment for us to continue to apply to the prescribed substantive standard the guiding procedural principle of according litigants their day in court.
We make this further observation regarding the counsel's oblique reference to the discovery rule but his total failure to pursue it. The question ultimately is whether counsel's failure should be dispositive or whether, in the interest of justice to this plaintiff, she should be given an opportunity to develop what appears to be the extraordinary circumstance implied by the motion. We opt for the latter. We regard a legal malpractice remedy as a poor substitute for prosecuting a claim against the responsible tortfeasor, and we are not at all sure that there is any net gain either for the community in general or for the court system in shifting the ultimate responsibility from a liability carrier to a malpractice carrier. We are also satisfied that had the motion judge more fiilly appreciated his obligation to find extraordinary circumstances, his response to the application would not have been its perfunctory approval but rather an insistence that plaintiff flesh out her claim. To that extent, at least, the court is also at fault for the risk of loss of plaintiffs potentially valuable cause of action.
Finally, a word about substantial prejudice. The 1994 amendment makes no substantial change in the original requirement of N.J.SA 59:8-9 that late-notice relief be accorded by the court only if the public entity will not be substantially prejudiced thereby. We think it plain that it is the public entity that has the burden of coming forward and of persuasion on the question of prejudice. Elizabeth did so here in general terms. We deem that, however, insufficient. Substantial prejudice in this context means substantial prejudice in maintaining one's defense. Generally that implies the loss of witnesses, the loss of evidence, fading memories, and the like. In the event, on remand, that the court finds that plaintiff has demonstrated the requisite extraordinary circumstances based on a discovery-rule type of showing, the court will then have to address the substantial prejudice question, and Elizabeth shall be required to show, with specificity and not by general allegation, the manner in which prejudice in maintaining its defense is likely to ensue from this late notice.
We reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.