A bill in the state Legislature that would provide a liability shield to California small businesses and nonprofits from COVID-related litigation is in the works after the federal government fell short last summer.
"Assembly Bill 247, which has bipartisan support, protects small businesses following local and state protocols from unfounded law suits," the bill's author, Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland), said in an email to the Northern California Record. "If they are following the law, why should they be sued?"
The shield provided by AB 247 would help keep businesses, especially those so hard struck by the pandemic, open and reopened, Ramos said.
"California’s restaurants, shops, salons, gyms and other businesses want to reopen safely without fear of being sued," Ramos said. "AB 247 encourages them to stay in business. I can’t foretell the future but my commitment is to do all I can to help California’s four million small businesses keep their enterprises afloat so they can continue as job creators and contributing to our local communities."
Ramos, a lifelong resident of the San Manuel Indian Reservation in San Bernardino County, has represented the State Assembly's 40th District since his election in November 2018. The 40th District includes Highland, Loma Linda, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands and San Bernardino.
AB 247 would shield California small businesses and nonprofit organizations from liability in lawsuits arising from the COVID pandemic. The small businesses and nonprofits that want the exemption, under the bill's present language, will have had to previously implemented and substantially complied with state and local health ordinances and protocols. Businesses that fail to meet those requirements and facing liability based on gross negligence would not be eligible for the exemption.
AB 247 was introduced in January and has been in the Judiciary Committee since March 18.
AB 247 follows Congress' failure last summer to pass the Safe to Work Act, which would have discouraged "insubstantial lawsuits" against small businesses arising from the still ongoing COVID–19 pandemic. The Safe to Work Act had 23 sponsors in the Senate, all Republicans and including then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell R-Kentucky, but never made it out of that chamber's Judiciary Committee.
Most states scrambled after the failure of the Safe to Work Act to pass legislation protecting small businesses from liability in COVID lawsuits but California is a bit late to the game.
Notwithstanding, Assembly Bill 247 supporter National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) found 98% of its members who participated in a recent poll were in favor of liability protections.
"Our poll results underscore what our members and other small-business owners have been saying clearly, repeatedly and emphatically," NFIB California State Director John Kabateck said in a statement issued with the poll's results. "They want to stay open or re-open; they don’t want to be hit by an unfair and unprovable COVID lawsuit; they don’t want to be saddled with a tax increase on their unemployment insurance, especially since the state was awash in funds prior to the largesse it will now receive from the American Rescue Plan Act; and they want the state to align its tax code with the federal government’s on PPP loan forgiveness, because nothing – not a grant, not a loan – speeds money faster to them than being able to keep what they've already set aside."