Arizona House legislators will return to work Tuesday in Phoenix, reportedly aiming to take a couple of enforcement tools away from Gov. Doug Ducey’s executive authority and protect businesses from liability tied to coronavirus cases.
House lawmakers adjourned two months ago as the COVID-19 pandemic grew more serious. Now, they’re scheduled to convene Tuesday morning for a committee hearing and then floor session at 1 pm. The state Senate voted to adjourn.
Recommended Stories
The House Rules Committee, a legislative panel that acts as a gatekeeper of legislation before it’s given a substantive hearing elsewhere, met Monday morning.
Draft legislation shared by Samuel Stone, chief of staff for Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio, would limit the liability of businesses, schools, churches, and other institutions that could be sued over someone getting COVID-19 and blaming it on the entity.
The draft says they’re “not liable to a person who contracts COVID-19 during the state of emergency, including after entering and remaining on the premise of the business, corporation, limited liability company, church, religious institution, nonprofit organization or school.”
The burden of proof would be on the plaintiff to show the entity acted with gross negligence.
The bill also would cap the penalty for disobeying an executive order to a civil fine of up to $100. It would also give the person 24 hours to remedy the violation.
The bill would also keep state agencies from revoking business or occupational licenses as punishment for not obeying Ducey’s executive orders.
Currently, disobeying an executive order is a Class A misdemeanor, which carries a fine of up to $1,000 and up to a year behind bars. Ducey allowed his stay-at-home order to expire Saturday but followed up with a new order giving public safety guidelines for businesses and others to follow.
