The Missouri Senate passed COVID-19 liability protection for businesses by a vote of 20-13, but the lawsuit shield won’t be effective until Aug. 28 unless the House approval process includes an emergency clause.
“It is potentially five months where the bill would not be in effect and employers would be exposed so we’ll keep working on it to see if it can't be added back in,” said Matthew Panik, vice president of governmental affairs for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce in Jefferson City.
As previously reported in the St. Louis Record, COVID liability protection for businesses was tabled in December 2020 after Gov. Mike Parson cleared it from the special session agenda without a vote.
“The emergency clause is a separate vote from the bill," Panik told the St. Louis Record. "The Senate voted on the underlying bill and approved it with enough votes but then there's a separate roll call vote on the emergency clause and you need two-thirds of the Senate. That's a higher standard than a simple majority and it didn’t quite have enough to adopt the emergency clause.”
Since April, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been leading the call for action on this issue with a letter signed by 800 businesses.
“It's a reasonable bill but it's still very strong for employers, health care providers, and manufacturers in giving them protections from lawsuits,” Panik said “I do want to see the emergency clause on there for businesses from the perspective of making the bill go into effect as soon as possible but the bill itself is a strong, good bill.”
SB 51 is a combination of SB 42, which was introduced by Sen. Bill White (R-Joplin) and SB 51, which was introduced by Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer (R-Parkville).
“If there's a claim of exposure at your business, there would be a heightened liability standard,” Panik said. “Medical malpractice lawsuits related to COVID or care that's provided to somebody that may be impacted by COVID are covered. Obviously, the health care system has been strained. We know there are impacts because of that. So, we did make sure there were some protections in there for providers and facilities.”
The bill now moves to the Missouri House of Representatives.
“The sponsors, Senators Bill White and Tony Luetkemeyer have put a lot of time into this effort,” Panik said. “We'll see what the House does with it. They may want to have a hearing on it and they may want to make some adjustments but, from our perspective, it's in really good shape right now.”