The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 19 formally blocked a trial in New York state court related to an upcoming high court case over New Jersey Transit’s potential liability for injuries caused outside its home state.
New Jersey Transit is being sued in state courts in New York and Pennsylvania after its buses allegedly struck people while operating outside the Garden State. Although the transit agency operates buses, trains, and light rail primarily in its home state, its service extends to the Philadelphia and New York metropolitan areas.
The legal issue is whether New Jersey’s public transit system may be sued for accidents that take place outside of New Jersey.
The U.S. Supreme Court noted in its unsigned Sept. 19 order that it had already agreed to hear oral argument in the case on the sovereign immunity issue.
Sovereign immunity is a legal doctrine that prevents governments from being sued unless they consent to being sued. The sovereign immunity of U.S. states is enshrined in the 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In the yet-unscheduled oral argument, the U.S. Supreme Court will review state court decisions on whether the New Jersey entity counts as an arm of that state, and thereby enjoys sovereign immunity from lawsuits in other states’ courts.
That court found that maintaining the “action against defendant New Jersey Transit Corporation in [New York] courts would not offend New Jersey’s sovereign dignity” and held that the defendants were “not entitled to invoke a sovereign immunity defense.”
Sovereign dignity refers to a state’s right to be treated with respect and not to have parties outside its borders interfere with its internal affairs.
The U.S. Supreme Court said in the new order that the stalled trial before the New York County division of the New York Supreme Court would be barred if the justices were to rule that New Jersey Transit enjoys sovereign immunity from suit.
However, the respondents in the case did not identify any “tangible irreparable harm they would face if the trial were delayed until after this Court decides the pending case,” the order said.
The U.S. Supreme Court stayed the New York trial until it hears and rules on New Jersey Transit Corp. v. Colt, and its decision has taken effect. No justices dissented.
Michael Symons, press secretary to New Jersey Solicitor General Jeremy Feigenbaum, declined to comment.
The Epoch Times reached out for comment to Colt’s attorney, Easha Anand of the Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic. No reply was received by publication time.
