Galette v. New Jersey Transit (Sovereign Immunity)

Send us Fan MailIn 1979, the New Jersey Legislature created the New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ Transit) as a “body corporate and politic with corporatesuccession” and constituted it as an “instrumentality of the State exercising public and essential governmental functions” but “independent of any supervision or control” by the New Jersey Department ofTransportation. N. J. Stat. §27:25–4(a). The State gave NJ Transitsignificant authority, including the power to make bylaws, sue and besued, make contracts, acquire property, raise funds, own corporate entities, adopt regulations, and exercise eminent domain powers.§§27:25–5, 27:25–13. NJ Transit’s organic statute provides that “[n]odebt or liability of the corporation shall . . . constitute a debt [or] liability of the State,” and that “[a]ll expenses . . . shall be payable fromfunds available to the corporation.” §27:25–17. NJ Transit is governedby a board of directors (Board). §27:25–4(b). The Governor may remove Board members and may veto Board actions; the Legislaturemay veto some eminent domain actions. §§27:25–4(b), (f); §27:25–13(h). NJ Transit is now the third largest provider of bus, rail, andlight rail transit, operating within an area that includes New Jersey,New York City, and Philadelphia. In 2017, Jeffrey Colt was struck by an NJ Transit bus in MidtownManhattan; a year later, Cedric Galette was injured when an NJTransit bus crashed into a car in which he was a passenger in Philadelphia. Both sued NJ Transit for negligence in their respective homestate courts. NJ Transit moved to dismiss both lawsuits, arguing thatit is an arm of New Jersey entitled to sovereign immunity. The New York Court of Appeals held that NJ Transit is not an arm of New Jersey; the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held the opposite, concluding NJTransit is an arm of New Jersey. This Court consolidated the casesand granted certiorari to resolve the conflict.Held: NJ Transit Corporation is not an arm of New Jersey and thus isnot entitled to share in New Jersey’s interstate sovereign immunity. Read by Attorney Jake Leahy. Support the show