SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 3564

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  OCTOBER 24, 2024

      The Senate Judiciary Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 3564.

      This bill permits the recovery of damages to be awarded against a public entity or public employee for pain and suffering based on an action at law for injury resulting from the commission of sexual assault, a prohibited sexual act as defined in section 2 of P.L.1992, c.7 (C.2A:30B-2), sexual abuse as defined in section 1 of P.L.1992, c.109 (C.2A:61B-1), or any other crime of a sexual nature.  The list of acts for which pain and suffering damages may be awarded against a public entity or public employee is based upon the list of acts of abuse for which the Legislature previously eliminated immunity from civil liability for governmental actors under the “New Jersey Tort Claims Act,” N.J.S.59:1-1 et seq., applied new, extended statute of limitations periods for victims to file civil actions against such public actors, and made them generally liable in any such action in the same manner as private parties.  See P.L.2019, c.120 (C.2A:14-2a et al.); and P.L.2019, c.239.

      Under current law, awards of damages for pain and suffering against a public entity or public employee are prohibited except “in cases of permanent loss of a bodily function, permanent disfigurement or dismemberment where the medical treatment expenses are in excess of $3,600.00.”  N.J.S.59:9-2, subsection d.  This bill would also permit such damages to be awarded to victims in civil actions based upon the above list of acts of sexual abuse.

      The committee amendments to the bill:

      -   clarify that the current law’s medical expenses monetary threshold and limited types of physical injury necessary for obtaining damages for pain and suffering against a public entity or public employee would not apply to victims’ causes of action against governmental actors for the various acts of sexual abuse listed in the bill;

      - provide cross references to one statutory source for the various acts of sexual abuse for which pain and suffering damages may be awarded, instead of separately listing out those acts multiple times throughout the bill; and

      -  revise the bill’s title to reflect the addition of some of the above described amendments in a newly added section to the bill (new section 1).