(Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from the most recent NJSBA Insurance Law newsletter listing recent cases relevant to business and insurance law. Access to the publication is a benefit to members of the Insurance Law Section. To review the full summary, read the full issue here. [login required] If you are not a member of the section, here’s how to join. Click here to see the full list of sections. Want to join a section? Email [email protected].) In a case involving the shooting death of a minor, the Appellate Division recently held that the minor’s parents’ obligation to file a Notice of Tort Claim for her Portee claim is tolled under the New Jersey Tort Claims Act.
On Nov. 15, 2019, the plaintiff, Angela Tennant, and her 10-year-old son, Micah, were attending a high school football game at Pleasantville High School when an individual fired a gun into the stands, striking and injuring Micah. Angela witnessed the event. Micah died from his injuries on Nov. 20, 2019.
On Feb. 14, 2020 – 91 days after the shooting and 86 days after Micah’s death, the estate, Angela and other family members emailed a Notice of Tort Claims to the Pleasantville Board of Education. The claims asserted wrongful death and survivor claims. Angela also brought a claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress under Portee v. Jaffee, 84 N.J. 88 (1980).
The issue was whether the mother’s Notice of Claim was tolled just as her son’s time to file a Notice of Claim was tolled under N.J.S.A. 59:8-8. The Appellate Division held that it was and that her Notice of Claim was timely under the statute.
The Appellate Division noted that N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2.1 tolls a parent’s claim for damages suffered by them because of an injury to a minor child. The Court held that under the statute, the time for the mother to file her own lawsuit for her individual claims of emotional distress was tolled under her child’s estate instituted suit. However, N.J.S.A. 59:8-8 is silent as to whether the mother’s 90-day deadline to file a tort claim notice for her Portee claim was also tolled. The Appellate Division held that it was. The Court held that if a minor’s time to file a Notice of Claim is tolled under N.J.S.A. 59:8-8, then the time for a parent to file a tort claims notice must also be tolled.