Assignment task:
FACTS: Our client, Melissa Mercado was walking entirely within the cross walk on a green traffic light across Market Street at the intersection of Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey. Market Street is a six-lane street, divided by a double center line, with three lanes for travel in each direction. Melissa was more than halfway across Market Street, having crossed over the double center line, and into the first of the three lanes on the opposite side, when she was struck by a marked Newark Police vehicle that proceeded through the red light on Broad Street, at a high rate of speed, entering the intersection striking Melissa and causing her serious and permanent injuries including permanent quadriplegia and brain injuries.
The Newark Police crash report completed by the Newark police that responded to the scene confirmed there were three eyewitnesses to the collision. The police crash report also confirmed the emergency police vehicle exceeding the speed limit, entered the intersection on a red light with roof lights and audible siren activated and was responding to a bank robbery in progress at Wells Fargo Bank, three blocks away on Broad Street at the intersection of Raymond Boulevard.
ISSUES
1. What type of injuries must a claimant suffer to successfully pursue a claim for bodily injury, pain and suffering under TItle 59 of the New Jersey Tort Claims Act?
2. What is the time limit for filing a Notice of Claim for Damages against the City of Newark, the Newark Police Department, and the individual police officers that operated the emergency police vehicle under N.J.S.A. 59:8-8 of the New Jersey Tort Claims Act?
3. If we miss the initial period to file the Notice of Claim, how long do we have to file a LATE Notice of Claim under N.J.S.A. 59:8-9?
4. What must we establish as the extraordinary/exceptional reasons to persuade the Court to permit us leave to file a LATE Notice of claim under N.J.S.A. 59:8-9?
5. Under what circumstances can an emergency police vehicle proceed through a red light at a high rate of speed in a crowded, downtown city, according to case law and the New Jersey Attorney General's Guidelines?
6. We interviewed the three eye witnesses. None of the eye witnesses saw the Newark Police vehicle with flashing roof lights nor did any eye witnesses hear an audible siren.