## Facts

- Jackson Township operated a municipal landfill from 1972 to 1978.
- Residents of the Legler section relied on private wells drawing from the Cohansey Aquifer.
- Toxic pollutants leached from the landfill into the aquifer, contaminating residents’ well water with dozens of chemicals, including carcinogens.
- On December 20, 1978, public authorities declared a health emergency and ordered residents to stop using their wells.
- For roughly 20 months, residents lacked normal running water and depended on tanker deliveries and other temporary water-supply methods.
- In July 1980, the township completed a public water system; residents paid connection-related costs and normal service resumed.
- Residents sought damages for, among other things, emotional distress from learning of ingestion, diminished quality of life during the water outage, increased risk of future disease, and costs of long-term medical surveillance.
- A jury found the township’s conduct created a nuisance and dangerous condition and was palpably unreasonable, awarding damages that included emotional distress, diminished quality of life, and medical surveillance.
- The Appellate Division upheld liability and the diminished-quality-of-life award, but reversed emotional distress and medical surveillance and affirmed dismissal of enhanced-risk and § 1983 claims.

## Issues

1. Whether damages for an unquantified increased risk of future disease are recoverable against a public entity under the New Jersey Tort Claims Act (TCA).
2. Whether reasonable future medical surveillance costs are compensable damages under the TCA absent present physical symptoms and without numeric quantification of risk.
3. Whether the TCA’s pain-and-suffering limitations bar awards for emotional distress and/or diminished quality of life stemming from the loss of running water.
4. Whether future suits for later-manifested disease are barred by the single-controversy rule or statutes of limitation.

## Decision

- Affirmed denial of damages for unquantified enhanced risk of future disease under the TCA.
- Reinstated recovery of reasonable medical surveillance costs as compensable damages under the TCA, and stated that a court-supervised fund is generally preferable to a lump-sum award (especially when the defendant is a public entity).
- Affirmed reversal of emotional-distress awards as barred by the TCA’s restrictions on pain-and-suffering damages.
- Affirmed recovery for diminished quality of life during the period without normal running water, treating it as interference with a property-based interest rather than pain and suffering.
- Held that future actions for later-manifested diseases are not barred by the single-controversy rule; accrual for limitations purposes occurs when a plaintiff knows of the disease and facts indicating third-party responsibility.
- Overall, affirmed in part and reversed in part the Appellate Division.

## Legal Principles

- Under the TCA, damages for an increased risk of future disease are not recoverable when the risk is unquantified and speculative, even if exposure to toxic substances is shown.
- Reasonable medical surveillance expenses may be awarded as a present, compensable economic loss when toxic exposure makes periodic testing medically justified, even without current symptoms and without numeric proof of disease probability.
- The reasonableness of medical surveillance may consider the extent of exposure, toxicity, seriousness of potential disease, likelihood of disease, and the value of early diagnosis.
- A court-supervised medical surveillance fund is generally the preferred remedial structure over lump-sum payments in public-entity cases.
- Emotional distress from learning of toxic exposure constitutes pain and suffering for TCA purposes and is subject to the Act’s statutory thresholds limiting recovery against public entities.
- Damages for prolonged loss of normal running water may be awarded as compensation for loss of use and enjoyment of property, not as pain-and-suffering damages.
- Later-manifested disease claims are not precluded by prior toxic-exposure litigation; limitations generally run from discovery of the disease and of facts suggesting responsibility.

## Conclusion

The court limited speculative toxic-exposure damages against a municipality by barring recovery for unquantified enhanced-risk and emotional-distress claims under the TCA, while permitting damages for reasonable medical surveillance and for loss of use and enjoyment of property during an extended water-service deprivation, and preserving the ability to sue later if disease becomes manifest.


Ayers v. Township of Jackson, 106 N.J. 557, 525 A.2d 287 (N.J. 1987)