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2020 SPECIAL SESSION I

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HB 5013 Civil action for deprivation of rights; duties and liabilities of certain employers.

Introduced by: Jeffrey M. Bourne | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles | history

SUMMARY AS PASSED HOUSE:

Civil action for deprivation of rights; duties and liabilities of certain employers in employing or contracting for the services of law-enforcement officers. Creates a civil action for the deprivation of a person's rights by a law-enforcement officer and provides that a plaintiff may be awarded compensatory damages, punitive damages, and equitable relief, as well as reasonable attorney fees and costs. The bill provides that sovereign immunity or any other immunities or limitations on liability or damages shall not apply to such actions and that qualified immunity is not a defense to liability for such deprivation of rights. Finally, the bill provides that any public or private entity that employs or contracts for the services of a law-enforcement officer owes a duty of reasonable care to third parties in its hiring, supervision, training, retention, and use of such officers under its employment or contract.

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Civil action for deprivation of rights; duties and liabilities of certain employers in employing or contracting for the services of law-enforcement officers. Creates a civil action for the deprivation of a person's rights by a law-enforcement officer and provides that a plaintiff may be awarded compensatory damages, punitive damages, and equitable relief, as well as reasonable attorney fees and costs. The bill further imposes upon a law-enforcement officer's employer, as defined in the bill, a duty to exercise reasonable care to control a law-enforcement officer's conduct while such officer is acting outside the scope of his employment to prevent such officer from intentionally harming, or creating a risk of harm, to third parties. The bill further states that an employer has a duty of reasonable care to third parties in the supervision and training of law-enforcement officers for whose services it employs or contracts. The bill further provides that an employer is liable to a vulnerable victim, as defined in the bill, for the tortious or criminal conduct of a law-enforcement officer it employs or contracts for his services if such conduct proximately causes injury to such victim and occurs at a place and time when the employer knew or should have known that such officer could be in contact with a vulnerable victim. The bill provides that sovereign immunity and governmental immunity shall not apply to such actions specified or created in the bill.