Defendants/third-party plaintiffs filing tort claims against public entities must serve a notice of claim within 90 days of the date on which the cause of action accrues.

The court found that N.J.S.A. 59:8-8 “is expansively phrased,” does “not distinguish between a plaintiff’s claim and a defendant’s cross-claim or third-party claim against a public entity,” and does “not exempt from the tort claims notice requirement a defendant’s claim for contribution and indemnification, or any other category of claims.”

The trial court recognized, and the Appellate Division confirmed, that this interpretation of N.J.S.A. 59:8-8 may “deprive a defendant of its right to pursue a claim against a joint tortfeasor before the defendant is aware that the claim exists,” and that “a defendant ‘may not even learn that he [or she] has a potential contribution claim within [the ninety-day] period [under the statute], since the plaintiff may not file suit until well after the [ninety]-day period.’”

The Appellate Division affirmed the trial court’s ruling that N.J.S.A. 59:8-8 requires a defendant asserting a claim for indemnification or contribution against a public entity to file a notice of claim within 90 days of the accrual of the plaintiff’s claim.

^{Case Law Alerts, 2nd Quarter, April 2021 is prepared by Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin to provide information on recent developments of interest to our readers. This publication is not intended to provide legal advice for a specific situation or to create an attorney-client relationship. Copyright © 2021 Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, all rights reserved. This article may not be reprinted without the express written permission of our firm.}