The Missouri Senate passed Senate Bill 51 by a vote of 20-13 on Feb. 23 to protect businesses from COVID-19 related lawsuits, according to a press release.
The legislation, sponsored by Republican Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, would halt lawsuits against employers for alleged COVID exposure on the job. This legislation comes in response to the high volume of lawsuits that have already been filed against employers across the nation. Many states have facilitated similar forms of legislation for this issue including all but one of the states that neighbor Missouri.
However, an emergency clause that would have allowed the legislation to go into effect immediately has failed to pass the Senate floor by a vote of 19-15 as five Republicans voted against the clause. Twenty-three votes were needed to pass an emergency clause.
According to the president and CEO of Associated Industries of Missouri, Ray McCarty, the lack of an emergency clause places every Missouri business at risk of opportunistic lawsuits.
"The emergency clause was essential to the value of this bill," McCarty said. "The plaintiffs' attorneys are salivating at the opportunity of filing COVID lawsuits and they know the failure of the emergency clause means they may file nearly all COVID-related claims before the Aug. 28 regular effective date of the bill. This places all Missouri businesses at risk of such lawsuits for exposures from the beginning of the pandemic in March of last year through Aug. 28 of this year."
Daniel P. Mehan, president and CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commence and Industry, also stated on the importance of protecting Missouri businesses from Covid-based lawsuits.
“If we want to restart our economy and recover from this pandemic, we must protect Missouri employers from opportunistic COVID-19 lawsuits," Mehan said. “I’d like to thank the Missouri Senate for making this a priority and passing this legislation. However, the failure to pass the emergency clause is bad for employers and hurts our economic recovery. It was very disappointing to see so many Senators side with trial attorneys who are seeking to profit from this pandemic instead of supporting employers who are trying to return to work and power our economic recovery. There is no reason to delay implementation of this critical legislation. As lawmakers continue their work on this legislation, we will strongly advocate that this bill lands on Gov. Mike Parson’s desk with an emergency clause.”
As it stands, the bill will go into effect later this summer on Saturday, Aug. 28 if it passes through the Missouri House of Representatives.