{"id":100534,"date":"2026-01-14T21:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T21:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/100534\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T21:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T21:58:14","slug":"supreme-court-grapples-with-whether-nj-transit-can-be-sued-by-injured-out-of-staters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/100534\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court grapples with whether NJ Transit can be sued by injured out-of-staters"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Supreme Court\u2019s nine justices<\/a> pondered Wednesday whether New Jersey Transit<\/a> can be sued by residents of New York and Pennsylvania in their local courts for injuries caused by the system\u2019s vehicles.<\/p>\n

The technical case before the high court asked whether NJ Transit is a government agency that can invoke \u201csovereign immunity\u201d \u2014 a concept enshrined in the 11th Amendment that protects states from being dragged without their consent into courts serving non-residents or foreigners.<\/p>\n

During oral arguments, the traditional ideological lines among the justices blurred, with liberals and conservatives alike quizzing attorneys for the Garden State about NJ Transit\u2019s unusual structure. <\/p>\n

\u201cYour argument sounds like you\u2019re saying, \u2018Don\u2019t worry about the fact that the state has chosen the corporate form for this entity, just look at what it does, and to the extent that you see what it does is kind of like an agency that should be enough,’\u201d liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson told state Deputy Solicitor General Michael Zuckerman at one point.<\/p>\n

NJ Transit is arguing it is immune from lawsuits filed in courts outside of New Jersey. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Jersey could have set this up as an agency,\u201d Jackson added, \u201cbut instead it chose a corporation, and having done so, at least traditionally, I think the analysis was that it also gave up the ability to instill this entity with something like sovereign immunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

NJ Transit was established by the Trenton legislature in 1979 as a state-owned corporation, with the governor retaining veto power over key decisions such as appointing members to its board.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s arguments concerned two traffic accidents involving NJ Transit buses in New York City and Phiadelphia, both major hubs despite their location outside the state.<\/p>\n

In 2017, New Yorker Jeffrey Colt sued NJ Transit after being hit by a bus while crossing the street in Manhattan,\u00a0resulting in<\/a> what he called \u201clife-changing and permanent injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two cases involved individuals who had been hit by an NJ Transit bus outside of New Jersey. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

The following year, Cedric Galette sued after the vehicle he was traveling in was struck by a bus on Market Street in the City of Brotherly Love.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

In both cases, NJ Transit urged local courts to dismiss the lawsuits.<\/p>\n

The New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the Empire State, declined to toss Colt\u2019s suit, while the Pennsylvania Supreme Court opted to dismiss Galette\u2019s claim in dueling decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cNJ Transit looks nothing like a city or town, and little like a private company,\u201d Zuckerman argued Wednesday. \u201cIt looks a lot like a New Jersey state agency. That means plaintiffs must sue it where the state has consented \u2014 in New Jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorney Michael Kimberly, arguing for Colt and Galette, contended that New Jersey is trying to shield NJ Transit from the downsides of functioning as either a state agency or a corporation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes debt financing substantially easier because separate legal entities are not bound by the constitutional limitations on public debt under New Jersey\u2019s debt limitation clause,\u201d Kimberly explained. <\/p>\n

Supreme Court justices did not appear to necessarily split along traditional ideological lines while hearing arguments in the case. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also relatively easier to administer public corporations\u2019 resources, like its human resources, free from the bureaucracy and complications of state government,\u201d he went on. \u201cBut by creating a separate legal entity in this way and achieving these benefits, the state accepts a cost \u2026 it does not share in the state\u2019s sovereign immunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimberly further contended that NJ Transit is relying on a \u201csort of a mishmash, you know it when you see it\u201d approach to determine the full scope of its legal structure. <\/p>\n

Attorneys for NJ Transit argued that ruling against the transportation provider could lead to legal open season on state agencies concerned with issues like law enforcement and housing.<\/p>\n

Kimberly countered that the fallout would be limited to unique situations where those entities are acting \u201cextraterritorially\u201d and facing suits from \u201cnon-citizens outside of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

A decision in the consolidated Galette v. NJ Transit Corp. and NJ Transit Corp. v. Colt case is expected by the end of June. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The Supreme Court\u2019s nine justices pondered Wednesday whether New Jersey Transit can be sued by residents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2850,1066,22154,9,24,55,54,56,3909,339,87,23948,2973,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-100534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-lawsuits","9":"tag-new-jersey","10":"tag-new-jersey-transit","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-city-news","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-pennsylvania","17":"tag-philadelphia","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-public-transportation","20":"tag-supreme-court","21":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}