H-3840              _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 1756

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1986 Regular Session

By Representatives Haugen, Brough, Allen, Scott, May, S. Wilson, van Dyke, Long, Betrozoff and Lundquist

Read first time 1/23/86 and referred to Committee on Judiciary.

AN ACT Relating to local government and state government tort liability; amending RCW 4.22.030; adding a new section to chapter 4.92 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 4.96 RCW; creating a new section; and repealing RCW 4.92.090 and 4.96.010.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.     An inherent right of government is its sovereign immunity, which the legislature may waive in whole or in part, or subject the waiver to restrictions.  A classification based upon government entities, as distinguished from nongovernments, is a reasonable classification that may be established by the legislature in authorizing a partial or conditioned waiver of sovereign immunity.  Governments are organized to provide services and facilities to the general public and are not created to make profits or to serve the few.  Disputes involving the sovereign may be treated differently from those involving private parties.  The legislature is invested with the exclusive authority to waive all or part of sovereign immunity, or to condition the waiver of sovereign immunity.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  A new section is added to chapter 4.92 RCW to read as follows:

          Subject to express statutory and inherent spheres of immunity, and subject to the restriction that the state of Washington shall only be severally liable for damages arising from its tortious conduct, the state of Washington, whether acting in its governmental or proprietary capacity, shall be liable for damages arising out of its tortious conduct to the same extent as if it were a private person or corporation.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.  A new section is added to chapter 4.96 RCW to read as follows:

          Subject to express statutory and inherent spheres of immunity, and subject to the restriction that local governments shall only be severally liable for damages arising from their tortious conduct, all local governments of the state, whether acting in a governmental or proprietary capacity, shall be liable for damages arising out of their tortious conduct, or the tortious conduct of their officers, agents, or employees to the same extent as if they were a private person or corporation:  PROVIDED, That the filing within the time allowed by law of any claim required shall be a condition precedent to the maintaining of any action.  The laws specifying the content for such claims shall be liberally construed so that substantial compliance therewith will be deemed satisfactory.  As used in this section, the term "local government" means any county, city, town, special district, municipal corporation, or quasi-municipal corporation.

        Sec. 4.  Section 11, chapter 27, Laws of 1981 and RCW 4.22.030 are each amended to read as follows:

          If more than one person is liable to a claimant on an indivisible claim for the same injury, death or harm, the liability of such persons shall be joint and several, except if that person is the state or a local government which shall only have several liability as provided in sections 2 and 3 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5.  The following acts or parts of acts are each repealed:

                   (1) Section 1, chapter 136, Laws of 1961, section 2, chapter 159, Laws of 1963 and RCW 4.92.090; and

          (2) Section 1, chapter 164, Laws of 1967 and RCW 4.96.010.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6.     If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.