Court Opinion

ID: 9714859
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:47:14.480355+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:28.948284
License: Public Domain

O’HERN, J.,
concurring.
It would be less than candid not to admit how close is the call in this case. Justice Handler’s compelling dissent points out how contradictory are the signals of the Tort Claims Act. The liability that the Act concedes for a dangerous condition of property under N.J.S.A. 59:4-2 is withdrawn when the condition is caused by an immune act such as the design of the road, N.J.S.A. 59:4-6, or the legislative determination of the proper speed limit. N.J.S.A. 59:2-3(b).
The bitter irony is that the very posting of the immune legislative statement may have contributed to this fatal accident. Indeed, the posted speed may have conflicted with other speed control laws. Yet the comment to N.J.S.A. 59:2-1 makes clear that the statute is “intended to insure that any immunity provisions provided in the act or by common law will prevail over the liability provisions.” Immunity is the dominant consideration of the Act. See, e.g., Malloy v. State, 76 N.J. 515, 518-19 (1978).
The conflicting interplay of the provisions of the Act in this case may present one of those rare occasions that will commend itself to consideration as a legislative claim. See P, T & L Const. Co. v. Comm’r Dept. of Trans., 55 N.J. 341, 342 (1970).