A coalition of business groups has written to Gov. Gavin Newsom seeking expanded protections from civil litigation for companies providing essential services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Extending protections to businesses helping fight the spread of the coronavirus is essential, the letter’s author, Kyla Christoffersen Powell, President and CEO of the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC) told the Northern California Record by email.
“It’s doubtful the drafters of the narrow civil liability immunity provisions in the existing California Emergency Services Act contemplated an emergency of the unprecedented COVID-19 magnitude and duration,” Powell said.
“Many essential businesses and nonprofits have stepped up with extraordinary efforts, providing vital goods and services to Californians during this crisis. As acknowledged by the State Public Health Officer, they are helping state, local, and tribal partners to protect communities and continuing functions critical to public health, safety, and security.”
Among the examples are businesses that have scrapped operations to start making hand sanitizer, or hotels stepping up to provide shelter for the homeless population.
“It is important to support and promote the work of essential private sector workers by expanding immunity laws to uniformly protect all of them from frivolous lawsuits,” Powell told the Record. “A wave of predatory lawsuits against these critical sectors will greatly exacerbate our state’s economic recovery.”
Along with CJAC, the April 17 letter is signed by organizations representing the transportation, retail, restaurant, hotel, and agriculture industries, and nearly a dozen chambers of commerce.
The letter specifically asks the governor to:
1 – “Issue an executive order at the earliest possible time clarifying and expanding the immunity provisions of Government Code section 8657.5 to apply to all private entities and their workers providing critical services, goods, and facilities during the COVID-19 state of emergency.
2 - Advance and support urgency legislation, to be acted upon when the Legislature returns from recess, to address any gaps in this immunity expansion not addressable by executive order.”
Gov. Newsom’s press office wasn’t able to reply to a request for comment Thursday.
“Even before the pandemic touched down on California and the world, the threat and the scourge of frivolous lawsuits has been a major factor in putting small businesses on edge, but during this crisis many mom and pop businesses are even more uncertain about what tomorrow will bring,” John Kabateck, state director for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) in California, told the Record. “The last thing they need is plaintiffs’ attorneys leveraging this terrible tragedy to make a fast dollar.”
The NFIB is among the letter’s nearly 40 signers; others include the Hotel Association of Los Angeles, the Industrial Environmental Association, and Western Growers Association.
“The reason we signed on is we believe the governor and his team have been doing an extraordinary job getting out in front of this,” Kabateck said. “His own background as a business owner can provide leadership.”
“We are urging the governor and the legislature to look carefully at the fast-moving and complex crisis that every small business owner is facing right now, and not allow these plaintiffs’ lawyers to manipulate the process for their own benefit,” Kabateck said.