Agenda Packets - 1987/09/14 - Laserfiche WebLink

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GLP-4. Tort Liability and Insurance (B) (cont'd) n V purpose well in the past. However, courts frequently forget or ignore the positive benefits secured to citizens as a result of the Act, which includes liability exceptions and limitations. The special vuli,eraoility of far-flung government operations to debilitating tort suits continues "o require the existence of a tort claims act, applicable to local governments as well as the state. The League recommends: I. Continuing our system of clearly defining and limiting the scope of public liability through legislation; 2. Modifying state laws gruviding for punitive damages. Punitive damages, intended to punish and deter egregious conduct, have not been effective because the standards of applicability have been too vague. The League does not oppose the total elimination of punitive damages, but would prefer that the Legislature specify that punitive damages may be awarded only when the conduct involved manifests malicious and flagrant indifference to safety, and place monetary limits on such aware: and 3. Eliminating joint and sev-r,:l liability except in limited circumstances. The fault -based system of damage awards has apparently eroded. In order to facilitate the return to a fault -based system, joint liability should be abolished in cases where defendants have 0' not acted in concert, and a modified comparative fault system should be used to evaluate the actiGns of other persons involved with the injury and assess damages, only in proportion to the amount of each person's fault. At the very :east, the legislature should retain the 1986 modification to the comparative fault statute that eliminates joint liability for governmental defendants when they are less than 35 percent at fault. 4. In order to protect any enacted legislation from constitutional equal prc�ection cha=lenge, the legislature should establish rationals defining the problem being addressed and the intent of the legislature. GLP-5. Mandates (B) One of the most serious problems facing cities is the growth in the number and cost of federal- and state -mandated programs, which substitute the judgments of Congress and the state Legislature for local budget priorities. Recent examples of costly mandated programs include comparable worth, employee right to know, legal compliance - ?4 -