New Jersey Statutes
N.J. Stat. § 59:3-4 (2026)
Acting under unconstitutional, invalid or inapplicable laws
✓ current as of May 2026
If a public employee acts under the apparent authority of a law that is unconstitutional, invalid or inapplicable, he is not liable for an injury caused thereby except to the extent that he would have been liable had the law been constitutional, valid and applicable.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4
cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1987–2026 · leading case: Ernst v. Borough of Fort Lee, 739 F. Supp. 220 (D.N.J. 1990).
Ernst v. Borough of Fort Lee, 739 F. Supp. 220 (D.N.J. 1990). “N.J.S.A. 59:3-4 provides that a public employee shall not be liable in tort when the employee has acted pursuant to a law which is later held to be unconstitutional: If a public employee acts under the apparent authority of a law that is unconstitutional, invalid or…”
Pomykacz v. Borough of West Wildwood, 438 F. Supp. 2d 504 (D.N.J. 2006). “See N.J.S.A. § 59:3-4. Similarly, the Act limits a public entity’s vicarious liability by excluding from liability “acts or omissions of a public employee constituting a crime, actual fraud, actual malice, or willful misconduct.”
Davis v. City of Camden, 657 F. Supp. 396 (D.N.J. 1987). “N.J.S.A. § 59:3-4 provides that “if a public employee acts under the apparent authority of a law that is unconstitutional, invalid, or inapplicable, he is not liable for an injury caused thereby except to the extent that he would have been liable had the law been constitutional,…”
C.A.L. v. State of New Jersey (N.J. 2026). “” N.J.S.A. 59:3-4. Similarly, “[a] public employee is not liable for injury caused by his instituting or prosecuting any judicial or administrative proceeding within the scope of his employment.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.