Brookins v. Murray

Citation619 A.2d 583,131 N.J. 141
PartiesStanley BROOKINS and Arvay Little, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Dawn MURRAY, Defendant, and Kenneth D. Merin, Commissioner of the Department of Insurance State of New Jersey and Karl Weidel, Executive Director Unsatisfied Claim and Judgment Fund Board, Defendants-Respondents.
Decision Date01 February 1993
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court (New Jersey)

Gerald H. Baker, Hoboken, for plaintiffs-appellants (Baker, Garber, Duffy & Pedersen, attorneys).

Floyd F. Lombardi, Jersey City, for defendants-respondents (De Sevo, Cerutti & Lombardi, attorneys).

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

HANDLER, J.

The Unsatisfied Claim and Judgment Fund is a State-administered fund created to provide compensation for the injured victims of automobile accidents caused by persons who are not financially responsible. Under the statutory scheme governing the Fund, a notice of intention to make a claim must be filed within ninety days after the automobile accident or within fifteen days after a disclaimer of insurance coverage on the person who caused the accident. In this case, plaintiffs were the victims in an automobile accident caused by a party who they believed was insured. That belief later turned out to be mistaken. As a result, when plaintiffs filed claims against the Fund, the statutory time periods had expired. The Fund rejected the claims as untimely.

The basic issue on appeal is whether the statutory provisions governing the time within which claims must be filed with the Unsatisfied Claim and Judgment Fund should be tolled until the claimant reasonably discovers that the party responsible for the accident is not insured.

I

On August 30, 1988, plaintiffs, Stanley Brookins and Arvay Little, were injured when the car in which they were passengers struck a light post. Dawn Murray, the car's owner, was driving, and no other vehicle was involved. Apparently, at the time of the accident, Murray told plaintiffs and the police that she was insured by Allstate Insurance Company. The police report indicated Allstate as Murray's insurer and referred specifically to an insurance-policy number.

Brookins and Little filed complaints against Murray on December 15, 1988. Their counsel sent a copy of Brookins's summons and complaint to Allstate on February 6, 1989, and a copy of Little's on April 3, 1989. Allstate sent Murray a letter dated April 28, 1989, disclaiming coverage. The letter stated that Allstate had cancelled Murray's policy on July 26, 1988, five weeks before the accident, for nonpayment of premiums. Allstate sent copies of that termination letter to Brookins, Little, and their counsel. Counsel received the letter on May 3, 1989.

On May 30, 1989, nine months after the accident and twenty-seven days after receipt of Allstate's no-coverage letter, Brookins's and Little's counsel filed Notices of Intention to Make Claim on the Unsatisfied Claim and Judgment Fund (UCJF or Fund). As indicated before, the statute governing the Fund requires the filing of such notice within either ninety days after the accident or fifteen days after receipt of an insurer's disclaimer of coverage. N.J.S.A. 39:6-65. (The notices were dated May 24, 1989, but the cover letter was dated May 30, 1989.) On July 24, 1989, the Fund notified counsel that the matter was on "ineligible status" because the notices had not been filed within ninety days of the accident.

Brookins and Little filed amended complaints on August 18, 1989, adding as an additional defendant Glenn R. Paulsen, Director of the Division of Motor Vehicles, and second amended complaints on September 28, 1989, substituting Kenneth D Merin, Commissioner of Insurance, for Paulsen. On February 1, 1990, Brookins and Little filed a new complaint, this time against Murray, Merin, and Karl Weidel, Executive Director of the UCJF. On February 11, 1990, a trial court ordered consolidation of Brookins's and Little's actions, and on April 12, 1990, the court dismissed the matter with regard to Merin.

Even before that dismissal, Brookins and Little filed a new complaint against defendants. All defendants except Murray answered, raising the defense of late notice to the Fund. Defendants Merin and Weidel moved for summary judgment, and the trial court granted the motions. The Appellate Division affirmed the trial court's judgment in an unreported per curiam opinion. We granted plaintiffs' petition for certification, 130 N.J. 8, 611 A.2d 648 (1992).

II

The Unsatisfied Claim and Judgment Fund was established by statute in 1952, L. 1952, c. 174; N.J.S.A. 39:6-60 to -91, "to provide a measure of relief for persons who sustain losses or injury inflicted by financially irresponsible or unidentified owners or operators of motor vehicles, where such persons would otherwise be remediless." Corrigan v. Gassert, 27 N.J. 227, 233, 142 A.2d 209 (1958) (citing Dixon v. Gassert, 26 N.J. 1, 138 A.2d 14 (1958)). The Legislature was attempting to "ameliorate the injustice to the victims resulting from a basic shortcoming of the tort liability system: the futility or impossibility of prosecuting a civil damage claim against a financially irresponsible or even unknown tort feasor." White v. Violent Crimes Compensation Bd., 76 N.J. 368, 380, 388 A.2d 206 (1978) (comparing the remedial purposes of the UCJF Law and the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act).

Under the statute, a "qualified person [who] recovers a valid judgment in a court of competent jurisdiction in this State" against the owner or operator of any motor vehicle may, after all proceedings and appeals have been exhausted, apply to that court for an order directing payment out of the Fund for any amount unpaid for bodily injury, death, or property damage exceeding a specified amount. N.J.S.A. 39:6-65. Such a "qualified person" (one who has automobile insurance coverage, N.J.S.A. 39:6-62) may recover from the Fund on the timely filing of a notice of claim. N.J.S.A. 39:6-65.

The time requirements for the notice of claim are designed to encourage "timely inquiry and thus to safeguard the fund against fraud and imposition." Giacobbe v. Gassert, 29 N.J. 421, 425, 149 A.2d 214 (1959). Timely inquiry promotes the verifiability of claims. See Marian Joyce, Tolling of Substantive Statutes of Limitation--White v. Violent Crimes Compensation Board, 32 Rutgers L.Rev. 95, 106 (1979). The time requirements also ensure efficient administration of the Fund and protect the Fund's limited resources. See Giacobbe, supra, 29 N.J. at 426, 149 A.2d 214.

Under the UCJF statute as first enacted, to recover from the Fund injured persons were required to comply with a single time period. Within thirty days of the accident they had to notify the Board of their intention to make a claim on the Fund. N.J.S.A. 39:6-65 (since amended); L. 1952, c. 174, § 5.

Since the enactment of the UCJF statute in 1952, the Legislature, recognizing the potentially harsh results of the filing deadline notice requirement, has amended it several times. It increased the time period from thirty days to ninety days. L. 1956, c. 200, § 1; N.J.S.A. 39:6-65. It later added three exceptions to that basic time period. The first two exceptions were made in 1958. N.J.S.A. 39:6-65(a) and (b); L. 1958, c. 99, § 2. Under subsection (a) of N.J.S.A. 39:6-65, a person who was physically incapable of giving notice may do so within ninety days of becoming capable; or if such person has never become capable, another person may file on his or her behalf within a reasonable time. See Giacobbe, supra, 29 N.J. at 425, 149 A.2d 214 (interpreting that provision to encompass mental or emotional incapacity as well as physical incapacity). Under subsection (b), a person may give notice within fifteen days of receiving notification "that an insurer had disclaimed on a policy of insurance so as to remove or withdraw liability insurance coverage for his claim against a person or persons who allegedly caused him to suffer damages." The Legislature added the third exception in 1963, N.J.S.A. 39:6-65; L. 1963, c. 81, § 10, after this Court announced in Corrigan, supra, 27 N.J. 227, 142 A.2d 209, that the ninety-day rule is relaxed when a person is injured by an unidentified hit-and-run driver and brings a claim under N.J.S.A. 39:6-78, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 39:6-79.

Thus, in its current form the statute specifies that the time within which a notice of claim must be filed with the Fund is ninety days from the date of the accident. That requirement may be relaxed if the claimant is not physically capable of giving such notice, if the person causing the accident is unknown, or if insurance coverage is disclaimed.

III

Plaintiffs failed to file their notices of claim within ninety days of the accident or within the fifteen days of the date that the insurance carrier informed them that the driver of the car was not insured. Plaintiffs contend that they should not be bound to the time periods in the UCJF statute. They assert that the statutory time provisions should be interpreted as including a discovery rule that would apply when an injured party has reasonably relied on a representation of insurance coverage by the party causing the accident, and that the victim should be allowed to file a notice of claim within ninety days of the discovery that no such coverage existed. Plaintiffs stress that in this case their belief that Murray had been insured at the time of the accident was reasonable in light of their reliance on the police report's reference to an insurance carrier and an insurance policy identified by a policy number. Further, because the police did not issue Murray a summons for violating N.J.S.A. 39:3-29, which requires that "an insurance identification card shall be in the possession of the driver or operator at all times," they reasonably assumed that Murray was carrying a valid insurance-identification card. Under the circumstances of this case, plaintiffs urge, the ninety-day...

To continue reading

Request your trial
6 cases
  • Young v. Schering Corp.
    • United States
    • New Jersey Supreme Court
    • July 11, 1995
    ...inform our decision. Where the Legislature's intent is remedial, a court should construe a statute liberally. E.g., Brookins v. Murray, 131 N.J. 141, 149, 619 A.2d 583 (1993); Torres v. Trenton Times Newspaper, 64 N.J. 458, 461, 317 A.2d 361 (1974). Statutes in derogation of the common law,......
  • Boyle v. Quest Diagnostics, Incorporated
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey
    • August 2, 2006
    ...Some other rules of statutory interpretation include: (1) construing statutes with remedial purposes liberally, Brookins v. Murray, 131 N.J. 141, 149, 619 A.2d 583 (1993); (2) construing statutes contrary to the common law narrowly, Oswin v. Shaw, 129 N.J. 290, 310, 609 A.2d 415 (1992); and......
  • Allstate Ins. Co. v. Coven
    • United States
    • New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division
    • April 29, 1993
    ...to assert its right of recovery, as envisioned by N.J.S.A. 39:6A-9.1.8 We are aware that the Supreme Court in Brookins v. Murray, 131 N.J. 141, 619 A.2d 583 (1993), has narrowly read N.J.S.A. 39:6-65, where the Legislature had carefully defined the instances under which the time periods for......
  • Schechter v. Selective Ins. Co. of America
    • United States
    • New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division
    • May 13, 1993
    ...this case, the difference between denying responsibility and denying coverage is only a matter of semantics. See Brookins v. Murray, 131 N.J. 141, 154-155, 619 A.2d 583 (1993). This case is analogous to an operator of a motor vehicle without permission of the owner, such as the operator of ......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT