COVID-19 immunity bill pursued by committee
COVID-19 immunity bill pursued by committee
By Tom Coulter
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via Wyoming News Exchange
CHEYENNE — After the Wyoming Legislature amended a law to protect business owners from COVID-19 liability lawsuits during its special session last month, lawmakers voted to take a second stab at addressing the issue during a committee meeting Thursday.
During their special session in May, lawmakers voted to amend an existing law to provide immunity from liability lawsuits to businesses acting in good faith and following best practices as advised by public health orders. But ambiguity in the statute caused members of the Joint Judiciary Committee to take a second look at the issue during their meeting Thursday.
By an 8-5 vote, the committee ultimately voted to draft a bill that includes suggestions from the Wyoming Business Alliance to explicitly identify the entities, including hospitals and churches, that would be shielded from liability. The motion to draft such a proposal, which came from Rep. Clark Stith, R-Rock Springs, would still hold businesses liable for gross negligence or willful misconduct when dealing with COVID-19.
Brad Cave, a Cheyenne attorney representing the Wyoming Business Alliance, told lawmakers before the vote that he was unaware of any COVID-19 lawsuits in Wyoming, but added “lawsuits are coming.”
“Unless and until we have widespread, reliable and accurate testing, businesses who need to reopen will face a great risk of being unable to control the passage of COVID-19 within their business,” Cave said. “They'll do their best, but their best will not prevent, necessarily, the spread of COVID-19 within a business or another entity."
While COVID-19 liability against a particular business may be difficult to prove in court, Cave said, the short-term strain of attorney fees and privacy issues would put a significant burden on any business being sued.
While lawmakers ultimately voted to draft another liability bill – one that will likely receive a vote during the committee's June 19 meeting ahead of the Legislature’s special session later this month – others on the committee felt the liability protections were already adequate in existing state law.
Rep. Charles Pelkey, D-Laramie, who voted against drafting the bill, warned his colleagues to move cautiously with any changes.
“We are sending a message that Wyoming is business-friendly, but in concert with that, we’re also sending a message that we’re not citizen-friendly,” Pelkey said.
After the vote to draft the bill, committee co-chair Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, had a few lawmakers agree to form a working group to review the liability issue with stakeholders before the committee's meeting June 19. That working group could produce another bill draft on the topic.
While the Wyoming Business Alliance suggested requiring “clear and convincing evidence” to prove gross negligence, the bill draft adopted by the committee did not include that language, considered too stringent by many who testified.
Michael Duff, a law professor at the University of Wyoming who teaches tort reform, told the committee that restricting people’s ability to sue for gross negligence would mark a drastic step.
“If the objective is to minimize litigation, I would respectfully suggest that a way to minimize litigation may not be to absolutely choke off negligence claims going out into the future,” Duff said. "I think that that's going to get some pushback.”
The committee did not adopt the language, though such a proposal could still be revived in coming weeks.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, liability issues have gained attention in other states and at the federal level. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has been pushing a similar bill in Congress, and the Utah Legislature passed a liability-protection bill during its special session in April.