New Jersey Statutes 12A:2A-531. Standing to sue third parties for injury to goods
Terms Used In New Jersey Statutes 12A:2A-531
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
- Goods: means all things that are movable at the time of identification to the lease contract, or are fixtures (12A:2A-309), but the term does not include money, documents, instruments, accounts, chattel paper, general intangibles, or minerals or the like, including oil and gas, before extraction. See New Jersey Statutes 12A:2A-103
- Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
- Lease: means a transfer of the right to possession and use of goods for a term in return for consideration, but a sale, including a sale on approval or a sale or return, or retention or creation of a security interest is not a lease. See New Jersey Statutes 12A:2A-103
- Lease contract: means the total legal obligation that results from the lease agreement as affected by this chapter and any other applicable rules of law. See New Jersey Statutes 12A:2A-103
- Lessee: means a person who acquires the right to possession and use of goods under a lease. See New Jersey Statutes 12A:2A-103
- Lessor: means a person who transfers the right to possession and use of goods under a lease. See New Jersey Statutes 12A:2A-103
- Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
- Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
(1) If a third party so deals with goods that have been identified to a lease contract as to cause actionable injury to a party to the lease contract (a) the lessor has a right of action against the third party, and (b) the lessee also has a right of action against the third party if the lessee:
(i) has a security interest in the goods;
(ii) has an insurable interest in the goods; or
(iii) bears the risk of loss under the lease contract or has since the injury assumed that risk as against the lessor and the goods have been converted or destroyed.
(2) If at the time of the injury the party plaintiff did not bear the risk of loss as against the other party to the lease contract and there is no arrangement between them for disposition of the recovery, the suit or settlement of the party plaintiff, subject to the party plaintiff’s own interest, is as a fiduciary for the other party to the lease contract.
(3) Either party with the consent of the other may sue for the benefit of whom it may concern.
L.1994,c.114,s.1.