Municipal Parking Authority Found to Be Immune From Tort Liability for Claim Resulting From Its Snow Removal Activities

Plaintiff Nancy Valdez was at a multi-story parking garage in Union City, owned by the Union City Parking Authority (UCPA), on December 11, 2017.  She was at the garage to renew her residential parking pass.  Due to a prior snowstorm, snow piled on an upper deck melted and re-froze on the downhill parking ramp.  As she walked on the parking ramp, she slipped and fell.  The issue in Valdez v. Union City Parking Authority, 2023 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 954 (App. Div. June 13, 2023) was whether the UCPA was immune from liability for injuries resulting from snow removal by a public entity.

The snowstorm, two days earlier, had left about four inches of snow on the ground.  UCPA employees removed the snow and, on the top floor, where the UCPA Administrative Offices were located, they piled it on the sloped deck uphill from the incident site. 

In the days following the storm, due to temperature fluctuations, melt/refreeze conditions occurred.  Because the top floor of the garage had no roof, the snow piled by the UCPA employees melted and the resulting water subsequently froze. 

On the day of the accident, Nancy was there to renew her residential parking pass.  She parked her car on the street and took an elevator to the top floor offices. 

She left the offices of the UCPA and walked along the top floor downhill parking ramp, attempting to exit the garage.  As she walked down the ramp, she slipped and fell on ice and suffered physical injuries.

Thereafter, she sued the Union City Parking Authority to recover for her injuries.  She claimed that the UCPA’s negligence resulted in a dangerous condition at the parking garage. 

After discovery concluded, UCPA filed for a summary judgment, arguing that plaintiff’s claims were barred by the common law immunity from liability for injuries resulting from snow removal by a public entity.  The trial court granted the UCPA’s motion, dismissing the complaint.

Plaintiff appealed to the Appellate Division and argued that the exception to the common law snow removal immunity established for public housing authorities in Bligen v. Jersey City Housing Authority should be applied to the facts in this case.  However, the Appellate Division rejected that argument.

The Court noted that the common law snow removal activities immunity survived the passage of the Tort Claims Act.  The rationale behind this immunity was that: “if liability were to be imposed on a public entity for injuries caused by its snow removal, it would be required to broom sweep the areas from which it removed snow.”  Further, the Court noted that the high cost of such an undertaking could make the expense of any extensive program of snow removal prohibitive.  Because “the public is greatly benefitted even by snow removal which does not attain the acme of perfection of “broom swept streets,” a public entity would not be held liable for injuries arising from its snow removal activities.”

The Bligen decision, dealt with a slip and fall at the Jersey City Housing Authority, when the plaintiff slipped on ice and fell as she stepped off curb into the parking lot of the complex.  In the Bligen case, the New Jersey Supreme Court declined to extend common law snow removal immunity to the Housing Authority.

However, the Appellate Division noted that the Bligen case was a narrow exception to the snow removal immunity. The rationale of the Supreme Court, in not applying the immunity in the Bligen case, was that municipal landlords should be responsible for the reasonably foreseeable consequences of their actions.

Here, the Bligen case did not apply because the Parking Authority was not found to be the equivalent of a public housing authority.  Absent a contrary holding by the Supreme Court, the Appellate Division declined to extend the holding in Bligen to claims raised against any entity other than a public housing authority.

Hence, the Appellate Division affirmed the trial court decision, dismissing the lawsuit against the Union City Parking Authority.

Tags: liability, slip and fall, Tort Claims Act