Municipal Liability / Civil Rights Law Alerts

New Jersey
By Matthew J. Behr, Esq. (856.414.6048 or mjbehr@mdwcg.com)

Court stays civil case as criminal charges pending.
Columbo v. Board of Education for the Clifton School District, 2:11-cv-00785

The plaintiff filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education and Jimmie Warren, principal of a school in Clifton, New Jersey, alleging that her two children were subjected to sexually suggestive communications by Warren while employed with the Board of Education. Warren was also charged with multiple criminal charges that were still pending. Warren moved to stay the civil matter pending resolution of the criminal charges. That motion to stay was granted pending the outcome of the related criminal proceedings since the plaintiff would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination in the civil case.

Pennsylvania
By Paul Lees, Esq. (484.895.2321 or pglees@mdwcg.com)

A community college, as a local agency, is not immune under the Pennsylvania Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act for alleged statutory violations Of Consumer Protection Law statute.
Meyer v. Community College of Beaver County, 2011 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 539 (Pa. Commw. Ct., Oct. 27, 2011)

Before the students completed the defendant college's police technology program, the Pennsylvania Municipal Police Officers' Education and Training Commission suspended the Academy's Act 120 certification. The Training Commission based the suspension on numerous violations. Students sued the community college arguing that it had violated Pennsylvania's Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law ("CPL"). The college argued that the CPL did not apply to community colleges and, as a local agency, a community college was immune from CPL claims under the Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act ("PSTCA") 42 Pa.C.S. § 8541.

While the Commonwealth Court initially determined that such a claim was barred by the PSTCA, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed and, on remand, instructed the Commonwealth Court to consider whether the community college was a person, as defined in the CPL, and whether the community college was immune under the Political Subdivision PSTCA because the CPL claims raised against it sounded in tort. First, the Commonwealth Court determined that the General Assembly's use of the phrase "any other legal entities" in its definition of "person," under the CPL, was expansive enough to embrace local agencies. Secondly, as the students' claims under the CPL sounded in contract rather than tort, immunity under the PSTCA did not apply.