Court Opinion

ID: 9863138
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 03:08:01.979673+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:47:42.406589
License: Public Domain

*314Justice ALBIN,
dissenting.
Today the Court has abandoned its traditional role as the steward of the common law. For the first time in its modern history, the Court upholds a contract of adhesion with an exculpatory clause that will allow a commercial, profit-making company to operate negligently—injuring, maiming, and perhaps killing one of its consumer-patrons—without consequence. Under the Court’s ruling, a health club will have no obligation to maintain its equipment in a reasonably safe manner or to require its employees to act with due care toward its patrons. That is because, the Court says, a health club patron has the right to contract not only for unsafe conditions at a health club, but also for careless conduct by its employees. The Court’s decision will ensure that these contracts of adhesion will become an industry-wide practice and that membership in health clubs will be conditioned on powerless consumers signing a waiver immunizing clubs from their own negligence. The Court’s ruling undermines the common-law duty of care that every commercial operator owes to a person invited on to its premises.
Without the incentive to place safety over profits, the cost to the public will be an increase in the number of avoidable accidents in health clubs. And like the plaintiff in this case, the victims of the clubs’ negligence will suffer the ultimate injustice—they will have no legal remedy.
Tens of thousands of New Jersey citizens join health clubs to stay healthy—to reduce the prospect of suffering from heart disease or a stroke, to battle obesity, and to improve the likelihood of living a longer life. The irony is that those who seek to live a better lifestyle through membership at a health club, now, will have a greater likelihood of having their well-being impaired through the careless acts of a club employee.
The ruling today is not in the public interest, not consistent with this Court’s long-standing, progressive common-law jurisprudence protecting vulnerable consumers, and not in step with the enlightened approaches taken by courts of other jurisdictions that have *315barred the very type of exculpatory clause to which this Court gives its imprimatur.
Because in upholding the exculpatory agreement the Court wrongly dismisses the case of plaintiff, Gina Stelluti, I respectfully dissent.
I.
Ms. Stelluti’s case was dismissed by the trial court on defendant’s motion for summary judgment. Therefore, in reviewing the correctness of that decision, the facts must be viewed in the light most favorable to her. Senna v. Florimont, 196 N.J. 469, 475 n. 1, 958 A.2d 427 (2008); see also R. 4:46-2(e). Those facts present a cautionary tale.
On January 13, 2004, Gina Stelluti, then thirty-nine years old, joined the Powerhouse Gym (also referred to as Powerhouse Fitness and the Club) in Brick, New Jersey.1 She arrived at the Club that day at 8:30 a.m., intending to participate in the 8:45 a.m. spin class. Before the spin class, with the assistance of a Powerhouse employee, Ms. Stelluti completed a “Membership Agreement” form, a “Member Information” form, a “Health/Safety Consent” form, and a “Powerhouse Fitness (The Club) Waiver & Release Form.” As a condition of membership, she agreed to pay an enrollment fee and monthly fees. The waiver form signed by Ms. Stelluti released Powerhouse from liability for any injury she might suffer regardless of Powerhouse’s fault. Powerhouse immunized itself from liability even if it caused serious bodily injury or death through the negligent maintenance of its equipment or the careless acts of its instructors and other employees. The waiver form was not explained to Ms. Stelluti. No one disputes that the contract was non-negotiable and offered on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, the very essence of a contract of adhesion.2
*316Fifteen minutes after her arrival and completion of the paperwork, Ms. Stelluti was in the spin class. She informed the Powerhouse instructor that she had never taken a spin class before. The instructor told Ms. Stelluti to watch her during the class. The instructor strapped Ms. Stelluti’s feet into the bicycle and adjusted the bicycle seat. The class began, and shortly afterwards the handlebars to Ms. Stelluti’s bicycle came flying off, causing Ms. Stelluti to fall forward onto the floor while her feet were still strapped to the bike. Ms. Stelluti’s physical-education expert concluded that the accident occurred because Powerhouse’s instructor did not properly supervise or instruct Ms. Stelluti concerning the handlebars’ “snap pin” adjustment to the spin bicycle. In short, this avoidable accident occurred because the instructor carelessly forgot to make certain that the bicycle’s handlebars were secured.
As a result of her injuries, Ms. Stelluti suffered pain to her back, neck, and shoulders, and soreness in her thighs. She also sustained a cracked tooth. Ms. Stelluti, a waitress, had no health insurance and received treatment through charity-care facilities located at Community Medical Center in Toms River, Ocean Medical Center, and Jersey Shore University Medical Center. Three years after the accident, a board certified orthopedist offered his opinion that Ms. Stelluti suffered from “permanent chronic pain associated with myofascial pain syndrome.”
Ms. Stelluti filed a lawsuit against Powerhouse, alleging that its negligence caused the accident. More specifically, she claims that Powerhouse failed to maintain the spin bicycle in a safe manner, to give her proper instructions in the use of the equipment, and to use due care in supervising her during the spin class.
*317The trial court upheld the exculpatory clause against Ms. Stelluti’s claims and granted Powerhouse’s motion for summary judgment. The Appellate Division affirmed, concluding that Powerhouse’s contract of adhesion exculpated it from ordinary negligence. 408 N.J.Super. 435, 448, 459, 975 A.2d 494 (App.Div. 2009). The appellate panel held that “at least with respect to equipment being used at the club in the course of an exercise class or other athletic activity, the exculpatory agreement’s disclaimer of liability for ordinary negligence is reasonable and not offensive to public policy.” Id. at 459, 975 A.2d 494. The panel found that “[t]he fact that the class instructor may not have checked or tightened plaintiffs handlebars does not amount to anything worse than an unfortunate and perhaps careless omission” and that if “the pin was left in a non-secure position overnight by the club’s maintenance or cleaning crew, that only would comprise an isolated act of simple negligence.” Id. at 460, 975 A.2d 494.
I cannot conclude that the “careless omission”—the failure to properly instruct Ms. Stelluti or to maintain equipment in a safe condition—is beyond the protection of our common law, merely because Powerhouse compels a patron to sign an exculpatory clause. Powerhouse’s “simple negligence” has had lasting, painful consequences for Ms. Stelluti, a first-time participant at the health club’s spin class. Additionally, Ms. Stelluti did not have the burden of proving that Powerhouse committed multiple acts of negligence against an assortment of patrons. It should have been enough that Powerhouse committed an act of negligence against Ms. Stelluti. Typically, a plaintiff prosecuting a personal-injury lawsuit need show only that she suffered from an act of negligence; she is not required to establish that the act was part of a larger pattern of negligence. Negligence has been defined as
[the] failure to exercise, in the given circumstances, that degree of care for the safety of others, which a person of ordinary prudence would exercise under similar circumstances. It may be the doing of an act which the ordinary prudent person would not have done, or the failure to do that which the ordinary prudent person would have done, under the circumstances then existing.
*318[Model Jury Charge (Civil), Negligence and Ordinary Care—General § 5.10A(1) (pre-1984)J
This Court must assume, for purposes of the summary judgment motion, that Powerhouse was negligent. Like the appellate panel, the Court concludes that Ms. Stelluti’s signature on the waiver form exculpates Powerhouse from its own lack of due care. That legal conclusion flies in the face of the progressive development of the common law by this Court over the course of decades.
II.
A.
“Exculpatory agreements have long been disfavored in the law because they encourage a lack of care.” Hojnowski v. Vans Skate Park, 187 N.J. 323, 333, 901 A.2d 381 (2006) (emphasis added) (citations omitted). “For that reason, courts closely scrutinize liability releases and invalidate them if they violate public policy.” Ibid, (citation omitted); see also Carvalho v. Toll Bros. & Developers, 143 N.J. 565, 578, 675 A.2d 209 (1996) (“[Cjourts will not enforce an exculpatory clause if ... exoneration of the party would adversely affect the public interest.” (citation and internal quotation marks omitted)); Mayfair Fabrics v. Henley, 48 N.J. 483, 487, 226 A.2d 602 (1967) (“[WJhere there is unequal bargaining power, the public interest may call for rejection of an exculpatory clause exacted by the dominant party____”). Public policy is expressed not only in legislation, but also through the common law as developed by this Court. See Vasquez v. Glassboro Serv. Ass’n, Inc., 83 N.J. 86, 98,415 A.2d 1156 (1980).
A common-law duty—such as the duty to exercise reasonable care in maintaining commercial premises open to consumers—is “derive[d] from considerations of public policy and fairness.” Hopkins v. Fox & Lazo Realtors, 132 N.J. 426, 439, 625 A.2d 1110 (1993) (citation omitted). Under our common law, business owners owe “a duty of reasonable or due care to provide a safe environment” to their patrons and “to discover and eliminate dangerous conditions” on their premises. Nisivoccia v. Glass *319Gardens, Inc., 175 N.J. 559, 563, 818 A.2d 314 (2003). Because business owners are in the best position to prevent the risk of harm to their customers, it is fair they should be responsible for injuries caused by their negligence. See Hojnowski, supra, 187 N.J. at 335, 901 A.2d 381. Unlike the customer, “[t]he operator of a commercial recreational enterprise can inspect the premises for unsafe conditions, train his or her employees with regard to the facility’s proper operation, and regulate the types of activities permitted to occur.” Ibid. The customer has no ability or right to control commercial premises, and therefore allowing a business owner to transfer the risk to the customer would undermine the very purpose of our premises-liability law. See Dalury v. S-K-I, Ltd., 164 Vt. 329, 670 A.2d 795, 799 (1995).
“No contract can be sustained if it is inconsistent with the public interest or detrimental to the common good.” Vasquez, supra, 83 N.J. at 98, 415 A.2d 1156 (citation omitted). That is true whether the contract violates a statutory or common-law duty. The common law is not an inferior kind of law, as is suggested by the Court’s opinion today. The Legislature may enact a statute that alters or overrides the common law, but until such time the common law holds no lesser status than a statute when it commands that a duty be obeyed.
In the past, this Court has struck down exculpatory clauses that violated public policy, expressed either in the common law or a statute, particularly when there was inequality in bargaining power between the parties to the contract. See, e.g., Hojnowski, supra, 187 N.J. at 338, 901 A.2d 381 (holding that “a parent’s execution of a pre-injury release of a minor’s future tort claims arising out of the use of a commercial recreational facility is unenforceable”); Carvalho, supra, 143 N.J. at 569, 578-79, 675 A.2d 209 (striking down exculpatory agreements between construction site engineer, township, and developer that exonerated engineer from liability to injured construction worker); McCarthy v. NASCAR, Inc., 48 N.J. 539, 540-43, 226 A.2d 713 (1967) (striking down exculpatory agreement between NASCAR and *320racecar driver injured in accident as contrary to public policy expressed in statutory scheme); Henningsen v. Bloomfield Motors, Inc., 32 N.J. 358, 364-67, 377, 403-04, 161 A.2d 69 (1960) (invalidating contractual provision exculpating manufacturer from liability for personal injury to purchaser of automobile). Cf. Horelick v. Pa. R.R. Co., 13 N.J. 349, 357, 99 A.2d 652 (1953) (noting in common carrier case that “[f]or negligent failure to discharge such responsibility to its passengers, the [Railroad] would seemingly be accountable even if the tickets issued by it had contained express provision to the contrary”); Blauvelt v. Citizens Trust Co., 3 N.J. 545, 554-55, 71 A.2d 184 (1950) (noting that New Jersey “courts have applied a strict construction to such exculpatory clauses ... and have said that they do not reheve a trustee of liability where a loss results from negligence in the administration of the trust,” but finding no negligence (internal citations omitted)).
On the other hand, this Court has recognized that sophisticated commercial entities, exercising equal bargaining power, are capable of protecting their own interests. See, e.g., Brunswick Hills Racquet Club, Inc. v. Route 18 Shopping Ctr. Assocs., 182 N.J. 210, 230, 864 A.2d 387 (2005) (“Ordinarily, we are content to let experienced commercial parties fend for themselves and do not seek to ‘introduce intolerable uncertainty into a carefully structured contractual relationship’ by balancing equities.” (citation omitted)). Thus, this Court has upheld an exculpatory clause in a contract between a commercial landlord and commercial tenant, who were not in unequal bargaining positions, and allowed them to distribute risk between themselves as they saw fit. Mayfair Fabrics, supra, 48 N.J. at 488-90,226 A.2d 602.
B.
Never before in the modern era has this Court upheld an exculpatory clause in which a commercial enterprise protects itself against its own negligence at the expense of a consumer, who had no bargaining power to alter the terms of the contract. The high *321courts of other states have struck down exculpatory clauses similar to the type that our Court now validates. See, e.g., Hanks v. Powder Ridge Rest. Corp., 276 Conn. 314, 885 A.2d 734, 741-42, 747-48 (2005) (finding that exculpatory agreement releasing recreational snowtube operator from prospective liability caused by operator’s negligence violates public policy and therefore is unenforceable); Dalury v. S-K-I, Ltd., 164 Vt. 329, 670 A.2d 795, 796 (1995) (invalidating contractual agreement exculpating ski operator from liability for its negligence in personal-injury claim brought by patron); Hiett v. Lake Bancroft Cmty. Ass’n, Inc., 244 Va. 191, 418 S.E.2d 894, 895-96 (1992) (invalidating pre-injury release clause exculpating community association from its negligence in allegedly causing injury in swimming portion of athletic event).
Under Virginia’s common law, contractual “provisions for release from liability for personal injury which may be caused by future acts of negligence are prohibited ‘universally.’” Hiett, supra, 418 S.E.2d at 896-97 (citation omitted). Since 1890, Virginia’s law has held that one party cannot “put the other parties to the contract at the mercy of its own misconduct” because “[pjublic policy forbids it, and contracts against public policy are void.” Id. at 896 (quoting Johnson’s Adm’x v. Richmond & Danville R.R. Co., 86 Va. 975, 11 S.E. 829, 829 (1890)). The 1890 Virginia Supreme Court found that exculpatory agreements are barred “where an enlightened system of jurisprudence prevails.” Johnson’s Adm’x, supra, 11 S.E. at 829.
The Vermont Supreme Court in Dalury held “that the exculpatory agreements which defendants require skiers to sign, releasing defendants from all liability resulting from negligence, are void as contrary to public policy.” 670 A.2d at 796. Vermont’s high court concluded that enforcing such an exculpatory agreement would undermine the state’s premises-liability law. Id. at 799. It further explained:
The policy rationale is to place responsibility for maintenance of the land on those who own or control it, with the ultimate goal of keeping accidents to the minimum level possible. Defendants, not recreational skiers, have the expertise and opportunity to foresee and control hazards, and to guard against the negligence of their *322agents and employees. They alone can properly maintain and inspect their premises, and train their employees in risk management. They alone can insure against risks and effectively spread the cost of insurance among their thousands of customers. Skiers, on the other hand, are not in a position to discover and correct risks of harm, and they cannot insure against the ski area’s negligence.

Ubid.]

The Connecticut Supreme Court agreed with the reasoning of Dalury in striking down an exculpatory agreement immunizing a snowtube operator from its own negligence. Hanks, supra, 885 A.2d at 743-46. Connecticut’s high court observed that “[t]he societal expectation that family oriented recreational activities will be reasonably safe is even more important where ... patrons are under the care and control of the recreational operator as a result of an economic transaction.” Id. at 744. It also noted that “it is illogical to permit snowtubers, and the public generally, to bear the costs of risks that they have no ability or right to control.” Id. at 745.
In New York, by statute, exculpatory agreements that exempt gymnasiums and other similar recreational facilities from liability for their negligence are “void as against public policy and wholly unenforceable.” N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 5-326 (2010).3
These cases, as well as the New York statute, show that the right to contract should be subordinate to the greater public interest.
C.
Unlike health clubs, the allocation of risks between ski operators, roller skating rinks, equine establishments, and their eustom*323ers is governed by statute, not the common law. See N.J.S.A 5:13-1 to -11 (ski statute); N.J.S.A 5:14-1 to -7 (Roller Skating Rink Safety and Fair Liability Act); N.J.S.A 5:15-1 to -12 (Equine Act). However, even in those statutes, the Legislature has not suggested that commercial operators in those fields can exempt themselves from liability through the use of exculpatory clauses.
Moreover, the Legislature has seen no need to give health clubs the power to immunize themselves from their own negligence. Indeed, as part of the Consumer Fraud Act, N.J.S.A. 56:8-1 to - 181 (N.J.S.A. 56:8-1 to -195 as of December 1, 2010), the Legislature has given consumers statutory protection from unscrupulous health club service contracts. N.J.S.A. 56:8-39 to -48. Nowhere in that statutory scheme does the Legislature give approval to a health club to insert an exculpatory clause in a contract of adhesion—the ultimate device by which a commercial interest, through the use of superior bargaining power, forces consumers to accept terms contrary to their best interests.
It is hard to imagine how the public interest could be served by permitting health clubs to exempt themselves from the common law governing premises liability. Tens of thousands of people in this State go to health clubs to maintain healthy lifestyles and to improve their health. See Active Marketing Group, 2007 Health Club Industry Review 5-6 (2007), available at http://active marketinggroup.com/AssetFactory.aspx?did=32 (estimating that as of 2005, New Jersey had more than 1000 health clubs, and that 16.6% of its population belonged to one); Miriam A. Cherry, Exercising the Right to Public Accommodations: The Debate over Single-Sex Health Clubs, 52 Me. L.Rev. 97, 103 (2000) (noting reasons why people attend health clubs). In 2006, the Legislature made a finding that “as many as 30 million people now visit health and exercise centers in this country.” N.J.S.A. 2A:62A-30(d).
The benefits of exercise are beyond dispute. The Surgeon General has declared “that Americans can substantially improve their health and quality of life by including moderate amounts of physical activity in their daily lives.” U.S. Dep’t of Health and *324Human Servs., Physical Activity and Health: A Report of the Surgeon General 3 (1996), available at http://www.cde.gov/ncc dphp/sgr/pdf/sgrfull.pdf. Moreover, the United States Department of Health and Human Services has found that “[bjeing physically active is one of the most important steps that Americans of all ages can take to improve their health” and that “[rjegular physical activity reduces the risk of many adverse health outcomes.” 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, at vi, available at http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/pdf/paguide.pdf. The health benefits of exercise include lower risks of early death, coronary heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, obesity, adverse blood lipid profile, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, colon cancer, and breast cancer, to name a few. Id. at 9. Some health clubs even have rehabilitation/physieai therapy programs for accident or stroke victims.
Whatever the Court says in its opinion, people will continue to go to health clubs, even if they are compelled to sign away their rights in a contract of adhesion. Most people do not have at their individual disposal the sophisticated exercise machinery and equipment, indoor tracks, pools, and trainers offered at health clubs. Gina Stelluti is a perfect example—a waitress without health insurance, who could not possibly afford to purchase the equipment available at a health club.
Ms. Stelluti does not claim that Powerhouse should be the general guarantor for every injury suffered in its facility. This case is not about a health club patron asserting that the facility is legally responsible for an injury caused by over-exertion, misuse of equipment, or from the act of another patron over whom the club has no control. Rather, Ms. Stelluti merely argues that a health club should be held responsible if it does not maintain its equipment in a reasonably safe manner and if its instructors do not exercise due care—matters over which a club does have control. It is one thing to assume a risk of which one is aware. It is another thing to say, as the Court does, that one should assume the risk for a dangerous condition of which one is unaware and *325over which one has no control. That health club members should assume the risk, as suggested by the Court, for the club’s failure to inspect and maintain its equipment in a reasonably safe condition runs completely contrary to the rationale underlying our common law governing premises liability.
D.
Tort law is not just about compensating victims, but also about preventing accidents. By allowing a health club to eliminate its duty to exercise a reasonable degree of care, the majority has decreased the incentives for health clubs to provide a reasonably safe environment for their patrons. This will inevitably lead to more preventable accidents. Because health clubs will not have a legal incentive to maintain their equipment in a reasonably safe manner, how many cases will there be of handlebars flying off of spin bikes, of cables to weight machines breaking, of pools mistakenly treated with the wrong amounts or kinds of chemicals? Increasing profits is the dominant force motivating most commercial establishments; increasing public safety had been one of the objectives of tort law.
Powerhouse has not introduced any evidence that striking down the exculpatory clause will lead to an exorbitant financial expense or that increased insurance premiums cannot be minimally passed along to patrons. Hojnowski, supra, 187 N.J. at 335-36, 901 A.2d 381 (noting that commercial recreational operators can “spread the costs of insurance among its customers”). Our Court did not permit an automobile manufacturer—through an exculpatory clause in a contract—to immunize itself for personal injury caused by a defective car in Henningsen, supra, 32 N.J. at 365-67, 404, 161 A.2d 69, although building safer cars arguably might cost more. Encouraging safely built automobiles was in the public interest. Safer cars result in fewer serious injuries and deaths, and presumably fewer lawsuits. Similarly, invalidating exculpatory clauses that insulate health clubs from their own negligence will encourage health club owners to keep their premises reasonably *326safe, which will result in fewer injuries and deaths, and fewer lawsuits.
There is a simple logic behind the law of premises liability: when business owners exercise due care, there are fewer accidents; when there are fewer accidents, there are fewer lawsuits; when there are fewer lawsuits, insurance premiums are more likely to go down rather than up. See, e.g., David A. Hyman & Charles Silver, The Poor State of Health Care Quality in the U.S.: Is Malpractice Liability Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution?, 90 Cornell L.Rev. 898, 917-20 (2005) (detailing how tort liability and high insurance premiums led anesthesiologists to enact reforms, and “[a]s anesthesia became safer, lawsuits against anesthesiologists became less frequent and liability premiums for anesthesiologists declined significantly”).
Not only is it unfair to saddle a blameless patron with the costs of the club’s negligence, but we must recognize that the costs of preventable injuries are shouldered by society in many different ways, including through unemployment insurance, social services, and increased health-care costs. Ms. Stelluti—a victim without health insurance—is a case in point. Although her injuries were caused by the negligence of a commercial, profit-making entity, the State, which subsidizes charity care, will pick up a good part of the cost of her medical bills.
E.
Finally, the Court relegates the common law to second-class status, allowing a contract of adhesion to eviscerate protections intended to safeguard the health and lives of consumers. In doing so, the Court has revived the discredited doctrine that the right to contract trumps the public interest—in this case, the public interest expressed in the common law. The Court’s decision brings to mind the Lochner era of the early twentieth century when the United States Supreme Court struck down social-welfare legislation under the banner of the right to contract. See, e.g., Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45, 57-58, 64, 25 S.Ct. 539, 543-44, 546, 49 *327L.Ed. 937, 941-42, 944-45 (1905) (striking down state law that regulated maximum number of hours bakers could work); Adkins v. Children’s Hosp. of D.C., 261 U.S. 525, 539, 545, 561-62, 43 S.Ct. 394, 395-97, 402-03, 67 L.Ed. 785, 789, 791, 798 (1923) (striking down legislation setting minimum wages for women and children in District of Columbia). In time, the Supreme Court rejected the Lochner-era right-to-contraet philosophy that was used to invalidate legislation advancing the public welfare. See Lincoln Fed. Labor Union v. Nw. Iron & Metal Co., 335 U.S. 525, 536-37, 69 S.Ct. 251, 257, 93 L.Ed. 212, 221 (1949).
The right to contract is not a blank check for commercial interests to impose conditions on consumers through exculpatory clauses that violate the public’s health and safety. The adverse effects of today’s decision may be far-reaching and long felt. Other commercial entities may see this case as a signal that exculpatory clauses, extracted through contracts of adhesion, may apply to their industries, trades, and professions. If health club owners can protect themselves from their own negligence, why wouldn’t malls, supermarkets, and restaurants do the same?
III.
The exculpatory clause to which the Court gives its blessing should be void as against public policy. That is so because the exculpatory clause in this case unfairly allocates the risk from the commercial operator, who is in the best position to remove and prevent the dangers on the premises, to the unwary patron, and because it encourages lack of due care. Exalting the right to contract—a contract of adhesion, no less—over the public interest is not in keeping with this Court’s development of a progressive and enlightened common law.
I therefore respectfully dissent.
For affirmance—Chief Justice RABNER and Justices LaVECCHIA, WALLACE, RIVERA-SOTO and HOENS—5.
For reversal—Justices LONG and ALBIN—2.

 Powerhouse Gym is the trade name for the health club operated by defendant Casapenn Enterprises, LLC.

 "[T]he essential nature of a contract of adhesion is that it is presented on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, commonly in a standardized printed form, without *316opportunity for the 'adhering' party to negotiate except perhaps on a few particulars.” Rudbart v. N. Jersey Dist. Water Supply Comm’n and First Fid. Bank, 127 N.J. 344, 353, 605 A.2d 681 (citations omitted), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 871, 113 S.Ct. 203, 121 L.Ed.2d 145 (1992).

 N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 5-326 (2010) declares that exculpatory agreements between the owner or operator of any pool, gymnasium, place of amusement or recreation, or similar establishment and the user of such facilities, pursuant to which such owner or operator receives a fee or other compensation for the use of such facilities, which exempts the said owner or operator from liability for damages caused by or resulting from the negligence of the owner, operator or person in charge of such establishment, or their agents, servants or employees, shall be deemed to be void as against public policy and wholly unenforceable.