Robson v. Rodriquez

130 A.2d 74, 44 N.J. Super. 262
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedMarch 13, 1957
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 130 A.2d 74 (Robson v. Rodriquez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robson v. Rodriquez, 130 A.2d 74, 44 N.J. Super. 262 (N.J. Ct. App. 1957).

Opinion

44 N.J. Super. 262 (1957)
130 A.2d 74

WILFRED ROBSON, ADMINISTRATOR AD PROSEQUENDUM OF THE ESTATE OF MARY E. ROBSON, DECEASED, PLAINTIFF,
v.
VICTOR RODRIQUEZ, DEFENDANT.

Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division.

Decided March 13, 1957.

*264 Messrs. Dimon, Haines & Bunting, appear for the plaintiff.

Messrs. Parker, McCay & Crisculo, appear for the defendant.

Mr. Grover C. Richman, Attorney-General, by Mr George H. Barbour, appears for the intervenor, State of New Jersey.

McGANN, J.C.C.

The plaintiff obtained judgment by consent of the defendant as a result of a claim based on negligence and arising out of an automobile accident that occurred on June 5, 1955. On the day the action was to go to trial, the defendant consented to judgment in the amount of $5,500, without costs. The plaintiff's decedent was killed in the accident and the defendant Rodriquez was uninsured and has no assets with which to pay the judgment. The motor vehicle operated by the decedent was not insured at the time of the accident.

Necessary proofs covering the above facts have been established and filed with the court.

The plaintiff now seeks to have his judgment satisfied out of the New Jersey Unsatisfied Claim and Judgment Fund, N.J.S.A. 39:6-69 et seq.

The Fund opposes payment of the judgment because of the provision of N.J.S.A. 39:6-70 which provides in part as follows:

"The court shall proceed upon such application, in a summary manner, and, upon the hearing thereof, the applicant shall be required to show

(a) He is not a person covered with respect to such injury or death by any workmen's compensation law, or the personal representative of such a person,

*265 (b) He is not a spouse, parent or child of the judgment debtor, or the personal representative of such spouse, parent or child,

(c) He was not at the time of the accident, a guest occupant riding in a motor vehicle owned or operated by the judgment debtor and is not the personal representative of such a guest occupant,

(d) He was not at the time of the accident, operating or riding in an uninsured motor vehicle owned by him or his spouse, parent or child, and was not operating a motor vehicle in violation of an order of suspension or revocation,

(e) He has complied with all of the requirements of section five,

(f) The judgment debtor at the time of the accident was not insured under a policy of automobile liability insurance under the terms of which the insurer is liable to pay in whole or in part the amount of the judgment,"

The plaintiff contends first, that subsection (f), supra, does not preclude recovery because the statute does not specifically exclude personal representatives under the subsection in question. Secondly, the plaintiff contends that the statute in part is invalid because it "prohibits recovery by the operator of, or rider in, an uninsured motor vehicle owned by him, his spouse, parent or child, or operated by him or by a person operating a motor vehicle by virtue of an order of suspension or revocation * * *." It is the plaintiff's contention that N.J.S.A. 39:6-70(d) (and possibly 39:6-70(a), (b) and (c)) violates the following constitutional provisions:

The Constitution of the State of New Jersey:

Article I, paragraph 5 — "No person shall * * * be discriminated against in the exercise of any civil or military right. * * *"

Article IV, Section VII, paragraph 7 — "No general law shall embrace any provision of a private, special or local character."

Article IV, Section VII, paragraph 4 — "To avoid improper influences which may result from intermixing in one and the same act such things as have no proper relation to each other, every law shall embrace but one object, and that shall be expressed in the title."

Article IV, Section VII, paragraph 8 — "No private, special or local law shall be passed unless public notice of the intention to apply therefor, and of the general object thereof, shall have been previously given * * *"

*266 Article IV, Section VII, paragraph 9 — "The Legislature shall not pass any private, special or local laws: * * *

(8) Granting to any corporation, association or individual any exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever.

* * * * * * * *

The Legislature shall pass general laws providing for the cases enumerated in this paragraph, and for all other cases which, in its judgment, may be provided for by general laws."

The United States Constitution:

14th Amendment, Section 1 — "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

On the first point raised, I find that the Legislature intended to be consistent in excluding a given class from coverage under the statute and that certainly it did not intend in an instance where a decedent, as part of a class excluded, that his (or her) personal representative could recover. In the case of Giles v. Gassert, 23 N.J. 22, at page 35 (1957), Justice Heher, speaking for our Supreme Court, said:

"That which is clearly implied is as much a part of the law as that which is expressed. Brandon v. Board of Com'rs. of Town of Montclair, 124 N.J.L. 135, 143 (Sup. Ct. 1940), affirmed 125 N.J.L. 367 (E. & A. 1940)."

I further find that this was not a "casus omissus" by the Legislature, but is reasonably implied. Giles v. Gassert, supra.

The second aspect of the plaintiff's argument dealing with the constitutionality of the sections in question brings to the Court's mind the well known principle of interpretation as set out in the case of Jamouneau v. Harner, 16 N.J. 500, at page 515 (1954), wherein Justice Heher said:

"There is a presumption of the constitutional sufficiency of a legislative enactment; and the onus of a showing contra is on him who interposes the challenge. Hart v. Scott, 50 N.J.L. 585 (E. & *267 A. 1888); State v. Dolbow, 117 N.J.L. 560 (E. & A. 1937); Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Camp, 124 N.J. Eq. 403 (E. & A. 1938). The finding of the Legislature is presumed to have the support of facts known to it `unless facts judicially known or proved preclude that possibility'; generally, it is `not the province of a court to hear and examine evidence for the purpose of deciding again a question which the legislature has already decided'; its function `is only to determine whether it is possible to say that the legislative decision is without rational basis.' Clark v. Paul Gray, [Inc.], 306 U.S. 583, 59 S.Ct. 744, 83 L.Ed. 1001 (1939). Every intendment is indulged in favor of the validity of the act. It is to be assumed that the act was directed to an exigency made manifest by experience, and the remedy was in accordance with the known need. Ward & Gow v. Krinsky, 259 U.S. 503, 42 S.Ct. 529, 66 L.Ed. 1033 (1922)."

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Related

Fasano v. Gassert
138 A.2d 752 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1958)

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130 A.2d 74, 44 N.J. Super. 262, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robson-v-rodriquez-njsuperctappdiv-1957.