Claims For Willful And Wanton Conduct Against Railroads Not Precluded By New Jersey Law
Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania concluded that the New Jersey Railroad Immunity Act does not preclude claims for willful and wanton conduct. In the case brought by two plaintiffs struck by a moving train, they alleged that the train failed to stop immediately after recognizing that they were on the trucks. The court concluded that this allegation sufficiently alleged wanton conduct (i.e., recklessness) under New Jersey law: “If Defendant’s employees saw a person on the tracks and made the conscious decision not to stop the train, despite having the time to do so, there would be an obvious risk likely to lead to great harm.”
Reasoning that the New Jersey Railroad Immunity Act’s 1998 amendment was intended to restore to railroads the absolute immunity from the claims of trespassers as they had enjoyed before the New Jersey Supreme Court’s case in Renz v. Penn Cent. Corp., 435 A.2d 540 (N.J. 1981), and that the statute pre-Renz did not immunize willful and wanton conduct, the court concluded that the Railroad Immunity Act still permits claims for willful and wanton conduct to be actionable.
