The high court previously agreed in July to hear the transit agency’s case.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 12 temporarily halted a New York trial related to an upcoming high court case over New Jersey Transit’s potential liability for injuries caused outside its home state.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who oversees emergency appeals related to New York, issued an order pausing the case known as New Jersey Transit Corp. v. Colt until further notice. The transit agency had asked the justice the day before to stay the case.
Sotomayor did not explain why she granted the administrative stay, which gives the justices additional time to fully consider the state’s application to block the trial, which was scheduled to begin on Sept. 15.
The new ruling came as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear oral argument in the case after granting the transit agency’s petition for certiorari, or review, on July 3. The court ordered that the appeal be heard with a related case from Pennsylvania, Galette v. New Jersey Transit Corp. The hearing has not yet been scheduled but is expected to take place in the court’s new term that begins in October.
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, service also 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 its home state.
The U.S. Supreme Court will review state court decisions on whether the New Jersey entity counts as an arm of that state that enjoys sovereign immunity in other states’ courts from lawsuits.
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.
