Bill Text: NJ A4467 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Codifies and expands "rescue doctrine" to permit recovery of damages by certain rescuers.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-06-03 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Public Safety and Preparedness Committee [A4467 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A4467-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman GABRIEL RODRIGUEZ
District 33 (Hudson)
SYNOPSIS
Codifies and expands "rescue doctrine" to permit recovery of damages by certain rescuers.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning recovery for damages for certain tortious conduct and supplementing Title 2A of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. If an actor's tortious conduct imperils another or the property of another, the scope of the actor's liability includes any harm to a person resulting from that person's efforts to aid or to protect the imperiled person or property, so long as the harm arises from a risk that inheres in the effort to provide aid.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill codifies and expands the "rescue doctrine." Under New Jersey case law, the "rescue doctrine" allows a rescuer to recover damages for injuries sustained when trying to rescue a person who is at fault, or partially at fault, for creating the peril that invited rescue. The bill would permit rescuers to recover damages for injuries that the rescuer sustained because a culpable party placed themselves or, in an expansion of the doctrine, property in a perilous position that invited rescue as a result of the culpable party's tortious conduct.
The supplement to current law included in this bill incorporates the findings of the New Jersey Law Revision Commission (Commission), as set forth in its Final Report concerning The Rescue Doctrine, issued December 15, 2022. The Commission found that a majority of states follow the definition of the "rescue doctrine" set forth in the Restatement (Third) of Torts, which includes rescue of both persons and property. The bill brings New Jersey law into conformity with the majority of states.
The legislative recommendations of the Commission's Final Report were largely in response to the New Jersey Supreme Court decision in Samolyk v. Berthe, 251 N.J. 73 (2022). In Samolyk, the plaintiff attempted to rescue a neighbor's dog from drowning, which resulted in the plaintiff sustaining permanent neurological and cognitive injuries. In Samolyk, the Court was asked to consider the "rescue doctrine" in the context of those who voluntarily choose to expose themselves to significant danger in an effort to safeguard the property of another, in this case, the dog. Although the Court declined to expand the "rescue doctrine" to include injuries sustained to protect property, it did recognize that "[t]he rescue doctrine 'has long been a part of [New Jersey's] social fabric'." Samolyk v. Berthe, 251 N.J. 73, 80 (2022) (quoting Saltsman v. Corazo, 371 N.J. Super. 237, 248 (App. Div. 1998) (noting that in New Jersey the doctrine has been historically used to address situations in which the rescuer sued the party whose negligence placed the victim in a position of imminent peril, thereby necessitating the rescue)).
