NJ Court Says Charitable Immunity Bars Slip & Fall Suit By Mother of Member

In Patterson v. Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church, (NJ App., June 24, 2008), the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division decided that the state's charitable immunity statute protects a church against a lawsuit by a non-member whose 17-year old son was a member and regularly attended Bible study at the church. Plaintiff Joan Patterson slipped on ice in the driveway of the church youth director's house while picking up her son from a youth meeting. The court held that plaintiff was a beneficiary to some degree of the works of the church by reason of her son's attendance, and so was barred from recovery by NJSA 2A-53A-7. Newsday yesterday reported on the court's 2-0 per curiam decision.