SSB 5340 -
By Representative Lantz
ADOPTED 04/10/2007
Strike everything after the enacting clause and insert the following:
"Sec. 1 RCW 49.60.040 and 2006 c 4 s 4 are each amended to read
as follows:
The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter
unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
(1) "Person" includes one or more individuals, partnerships,
associations, organizations, corporations, cooperatives, legal
representatives, trustees and receivers, or any group of persons; it
includes any owner, lessee, proprietor, manager, agent, or employee,
whether one or more natural persons; and further includes any political
or civil subdivisions of the state and any agency or instrumentality of
the state or of any political or civil subdivision thereof;
(2) "Commission" means the Washington state human rights
commission;
(3) "Employer" includes any person acting in the interest of an
employer, directly or indirectly, who employs eight or more persons,
and does not include any religious or sectarian organization not
organized for private profit;
(4) "Employee" does not include any individual employed by his or
her parents, spouse, or child, or in the domestic service of any
person;
(5) "Labor organization" includes any organization which exists for
the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning
grievances or terms or conditions of employment, or for other mutual
aid or protection in connection with employment;
(6) "Employment agency" includes any person undertaking with or
without compensation to recruit, procure, refer, or place employees for
an employer;
(7) "Marital status" means the legal status of being married,
single, separated, divorced, or widowed;
(8) "National origin" includes "ancestry";
(9) "Full enjoyment of" includes the right to purchase any service,
commodity, or article of personal property offered or sold on, or by,
any establishment to the public, and the admission of any person to
accommodations, advantages, facilities, or privileges of any place of
public resort, accommodation, assemblage, or amusement, without acts
directly or indirectly causing persons of any particular race, creed,
color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, or with any sensory,
mental, or physical disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or
service animal by a ((disabled)) person with a disability, to be
treated as not welcome, accepted, desired, or solicited;
(10) "Any place of public resort, accommodation, assemblage, or
amusement" includes, but is not limited to, any place, licensed or
unlicensed, kept for gain, hire, or reward, or where charges are made
for admission, service, occupancy, or use of any property or
facilities, whether conducted for the entertainment, housing, or
lodging of transient guests, or for the benefit, use, or accommodation
of those seeking health, recreation, or rest, or for the burial or
other disposition of human remains, or for the sale of goods,
merchandise, services, or personal property, or for the rendering of
personal services, or for public conveyance or transportation on land,
water, or in the air, including the stations and terminals thereof and
the garaging of vehicles, or where food or beverages of any kind are
sold for consumption on the premises, or where public amusement,
entertainment, sports, or recreation of any kind is offered with or
without charge, or where medical service or care is made available, or
where the public gathers, congregates, or assembles for amusement,
recreation, or public purposes, or public halls, public elevators, and
public washrooms of buildings and structures occupied by two or more
tenants, or by the owner and one or more tenants, or any public library
or educational institution, or schools of special instruction, or
nursery schools, or day care centers or children's camps: PROVIDED,
That nothing contained in this definition shall be construed to include
or apply to any institute, bona fide club, or place of accommodation,
which is by its nature distinctly private, including fraternal
organizations, though where public use is permitted that use shall be
covered by this chapter; nor shall anything contained in this
definition apply to any educational facility, columbarium, crematory,
mausoleum, or cemetery operated or maintained by a bona fide religious
or sectarian institution;
(11) "Real property" includes buildings, structures, dwellings,
real estate, lands, tenements, leaseholds, interests in real estate
cooperatives, condominiums, and hereditaments, corporeal and
incorporeal, or any interest therein;
(12) "Real estate transaction" includes the sale, appraisal,
brokering, exchange, purchase, rental, or lease of real property,
transacting or applying for a real estate loan, or the provision of
brokerage services;
(13) "Dwelling" means any building, structure, or portion thereof
that is occupied as, or designed or intended for occupancy as, a
residence by one or more families, and any vacant land that is offered
for sale or lease for the construction or location thereon of any such
building, structure, or portion thereof;
(14) "Sex" means gender;
(15) "Sexual orientation" means heterosexuality, homosexuality,
bisexuality, and gender expression or identity. As used in this
definition, "gender expression or identity" means having or being
perceived as having a gender identity, self-image, appearance,
behavior, or expression, whether or not that gender identity, self-image, appearance, behavior, or expression is different from that
traditionally associated with the sex assigned to that person at birth;
(16) "Aggrieved person" means any person who: (a) Claims to have
been injured by an unfair practice in a real estate transaction; or (b)
believes that he or she will be injured by an unfair practice in a real
estate transaction that is about to occur;
(17) "Complainant" means the person who files a complaint in a real
estate transaction;
(18) "Respondent" means any person accused in a complaint or
amended complaint of an unfair practice in a real estate transaction;
(19) "Credit transaction" includes any open or closed end credit
transaction, whether in the nature of a loan, retail installment
transaction, credit card issue or charge, or otherwise, and whether for
personal or for business purposes, in which a service, finance, or
interest charge is imposed, or which provides for repayment in
scheduled payments, when such credit is extended in the regular course
of any trade or commerce, including but not limited to transactions by
banks, savings and loan associations or other financial lending
institutions of whatever nature, stock brokers, or by a merchant or
mercantile establishment which as part of its ordinary business permits
or provides that payment for purchases of property or service therefrom
may be deferred;
(20) "Families with children status" means one or more individuals
who have not attained the age of eighteen years being domiciled with a
parent or another person having legal custody of such individual or
individuals, or with the designee of such parent or other person having
such legal custody, with the written permission of such parent or other
person. Families with children status also applies to any person who
is pregnant or is in the process of securing legal custody of any
individual who has not attained the age of eighteen years;
(21) "Covered multifamily dwelling" means: (a) Buildings
consisting of four or more dwelling units if such buildings have one or
more elevators; and (b) ground floor dwelling units in other buildings
consisting of four or more dwelling units;
(22) "Premises" means the interior or exterior spaces, parts,
components, or elements of a building, including individual dwelling
units and the public and common use areas of a building;
(23) "Dog guide" means a dog that is trained for the purpose of
guiding blind persons or a dog that is trained for the purpose of
assisting hearing impaired persons;
(24) "Service animal" means an animal that is trained for the
purpose of assisting or accommodating a ((disabled person's)) sensory,
mental, or physical disability of a person with a disability;
(25)(a) "Disability" means the presence of a sensory, mental, or
physical impairment that:
(i) Is medically cognizable or diagnosable; or
(ii) Exists as a record or history; or
(iii) Is perceived to exist whether or not it exists in fact.
(b) A disability exists whether it is temporary or permanent,
common or uncommon, mitigated or unmitigated, or whether or not it
limits the ability to work generally or work at a particular job or
whether or not it limits any other activity within the scope of this
chapter.
(c) For purposes of this definition, "impairment" includes, but is
not limited to:
(i) Any physiological disorder, or condition, cosmetic
disfigurement, or anatomical loss affecting one or more of the
following body systems: Neurological, musculoskeletal, special sense
organs, respiratory, including speech organs, cardiovascular,
reproductive, digestive, genitor-urinary, hemic and lymphatic, skin,
and endocrine; or
(ii) Any mental, developmental, traumatic, or psychological
disorder, including but not limited to cognitive limitation, organic
brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning
disabilities.
(d) Only for the purposes of qualifying for reasonable
accommodation in employment, an impairment must be known or shown
through an interactive process to exist in fact and:
(i) The impairment must have a substantially limiting effect upon
the individual's ability to perform his or her job, the individual's
ability to apply or be considered for a job, or the individual's access
to equal benefits, privileges, or terms or conditions of employment; or
(ii) The employee must have put the employer on notice of the
existence of an impairment, and medical documentation must establish a
reasonable likelihood that engaging in job functions without an
accommodation would aggravate the impairment to the extent that it
would create a substantially limiting effect.
(e) For purposes of (d) of this subsection, a limitation is not
substantial if it has only a trivial effect.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2 This act is remedial and retroactive, and
applies to all causes of action occurring before July 6, 2006, and to
all causes of action occurring on or after the effective date of this
act."
Correct the title.
EFFECT: Removes the legislative findings section from the bill.
Provides for purposes of reasonable accommodations in employment
that an impairment must exist in fact and may not merely be perceived
as an impairment. Also provides for those same reasonable
accommodations purposes that an impairment will not meet the
"substantially limiting effect" requirement if it has only a trivial
effect on the individual's ability to perform his or her job.
Provides for purposes of requiring reasonable accommodations in
employment that an impairment must be currently substantially limiting,
or that the employee must have notified the employer of an impairment
which medical documentation will show presents a reasonable likelihood
of being aggravated to the point of being substantially limiting if the
impairment is not accommodated. Replaces a standard in the substitute
bill that did not include the requirement for notice to the employer or
for medical documentation.
Changes the application of the act from complete retroactivity with
respect to all claims not time-barred by making the act apply to causes
of action that occurred before the McClarty (July 6, 2006) or after the
effective date of the act. The act does not apply to causes of action
occurring between McClarty and the effective date of the act.