Bill Text: HI SB154 | 2010 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Joint and Several Liability; Design Professionals; Public Utilities

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-05-11 - Carried over to 2010 Regular Session. [SB154 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2010-SB154-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 265

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 154

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 154 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TORTS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to limit liability in tort actions relating to the maintenance and design of public highways to the actual percentage share of damages for design professionals whose degree of negligence is determined to be twenty-five per cent or less. 

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Austin, Tsutsumi & Associates; ECS, Inc.; Pacific Geotechnical Engineers, Inc.; Coalition of Hawaii Engineering and Architectural Professionals; American Institute of Architects; American Council of Engineering Companies; Fukunaga & Associates, Inc.; Engineering Solutions, Inc.; and Gray, Hong, Nojima & Associates, Inc.  Testimony in opposition to this measure was received from Hawaii Association for Justice.  Testimony with comments was received from Hawaiian Electric Company and Hawaiian Telcom.  Written testimony presented to the Committee may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

 

     Your Committee acknowledges the concerns voiced in testimony by members of the small business community that the potential for tort liability may influence the choice of some small businesses to not participate in contracts for the design and maintenance of public highways.  However, your Committee disagrees with some testifiers' conflation of tort liability with contractual indemnification of the contracting government entity for damages.  Your Committee also notes the concerns of the public utilities that this measure would shift liability from design professionals to public utilities even though public utilities are bound by state and local government laws as to the placement of utility poles along highways but do not participate in highway design, planning, or construction.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

(1)  Adding a new section to exempt public utilities from liability in tort actions involving damages related to the design and maintenance of public highways unless the public utility's degree of negligence is determined to be twenty-five per cent or more; and

 

(2)  Deferring the effective date of this measure to July 1, 2030.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 154, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 154, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection,

 

		____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair