Sparta immune from liability after court rules librarian's snowplow injuries were work-related

Injuries suffered by a Sparta librarian who was leaving work when she was struck by a snowplow in a township-owned parking lot in 2014 are covered under the state's Workers' Compensation Act, New Jersey's highest court has ruled.

The unanimous decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court on Tuesday reverses a state appeals court panel's ruling last year that Diane Lapsley's injuries were not work-related.

The state appeal decision had been a win for Lapsley as it opened the door to a personal injury lawsuit against the township. Tuesday's ruling changes that.

While New Jersey's Workers' Compensation Act requires payment to an employee without regard to who was at fault, the employer is generally immune from liability and the employee surrenders all other forms of relief — including the right to sue.

At the time of the accident, Lapsley, then 60 and a resident of Flanders, was the assistant director of the Sparta Public Library. On Feb. 3, 2014, the library closed early due to poor weather conditions and Lapsley's husband, Donald, arrived to drive her home. He parked in one of three common-use, township-owned parking lots, open and free to employees and the general public. As the couple departed the library, they stepped off the curb and walked about 18 feet when they were struck by a snowplow operated by a Sparta Public Works employee, according to court records. As a result, Lapsley suffered serious injuries to her head, back and legs that required multiple surgeries. She was left permanently disfigured.

Lapsley filed a negligence lawsuit against Sparta and its Department of Public Works six months after the incident that is now expected to be dismissed, John Tort, the attorney for the township and library told the New Jersey Herald.

Supreme Court Justice Faustino J. Fernandez-Vina pointed to the state's "premises rule" under the Workers' Compensation law when he wrote the unanimous decision on behalf of the six-judge panel, including Chief Justice Stuart Rabner. The rule used by the courts states that employment commences "when an employee arrives at the employer’s place of employment to report for work and shall terminate when the employee leaves the employer’s place of employment, excluding areas not under the control of the employer.”

The township "controlled the parking lot through its ownership and maintenance," Fernandez-Wina wrote. "The township’s plowing of the parking lot of snow when the accident occurred visibly demonstrated the Township’s exercise of control over the lot."

In 2016, a Workers' Compensation judge found Lapsley's injuries fell under the purview of a work-related injury, even though Lapsley had clocked out of work for the day. Sparta's ownership of the parking lots was sufficient to find the injury occurred on the employer's premises, the Compensation judge determined.

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But Lapsley appealed, arguing her injury was not compensable because her injuries did not occur while engaged in any task for her employer's benefit. An appeals panel ruled in her favor, stating that Lapsley was off-the-clock at the time of the incident, had never been given instructions by her employer about where to park, whether it be in that lot or on the street, and that the lot was shared with other employees and members of the public alike.

Christopher Masmanno, Lapsley's attorney, told the New Jersey Herald on Thursday he "strongly disagreed but must reluctantly accept" the Supreme Court's decision, but said there should have been an exception to the premises rule.

"By its logic, if Mrs. Lapsley was walking home and was crossing a Sparta-owned street 2 miles from the library owned by the Township of Sparta and was run over by the very same snowplow, by its holding the court would find that Mrs. Lapsley was still in the course of her employment thereby resurrecting the long-deceased 'going and coming rule'," he said.

Tort lauded the decision, stating the top court's ruling was made based on current case law and an appeals court panel applied the law "inappropriately."

He pointed to a 2014 case, Hersh v. County of Morris, of which he argued on behalf of Morris County and was successful in having a lower court's decision reversed by the Supreme Court. The top court ruled that injuries suffered by a county employee who was hit by a car crossing a public street while walking from a privately-owned employer-paid parking lot were not compensable under Workers' Compensation. The woman, Cheryl Hersh, prevailed with a claim against the county through Workers' Compensation and an appeals court affirmed it, but the top court later reversed it, taking the blame away from the county.

Masmanno said he will "continue to believe and I will always believe" that Lapsley was not in the course of her employment when she was injured.

"Every fact in this case, every inference, every application of logic, every rule of cause and effect, not only by a preponderance of the evidence, but by unrefuted and irrefutable evidence makes clear that Mrs. Lapsley was hurt by the Sparta snowplow in a common use municipal lot when she had concluded her employment as a librarian, with the library closed and dark," he said.

Lapsley died in April 2020. The library announced her death in a Facebook post. Masmanno will now represent Donald Lapsley, who is the executor of his wife's estate.

The civil suit was paused pending the outcome of the Supreme Court decision. No action had been taken as of Thursday.

Lori Comstock can be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: NJ Supreme Court: Sparta NJ librarian's injuries were work-related