South Carolina’s business community is calling for safe harbor liability protections for businesses operating in good faith during the coronavirus pandemic.
Both of South Carolina’s neighbors, Georgia and North Carolina, have passed COVID-19-related liability protection legislation.
“South Carolina is at a competitive disadvantage when you look at other states that have implemented proposals, and we have still yet to act,” Ted Pitts, president of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, told The Center Square.
Gov. Henry McMaster joined 20 other Republican governors Tuesday in a letter urging Congressional leadership to include liability protections in the next round of federal coronavirus relief funding. The letter asked that health care workers, businesses and schools that make good faith efforts to implement public health best practices be protected from unreasonable claims.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled Tuesday that liability protections will be a pillar of a coronavirus relief bill he plans to introduce later this week.
Meanwhile, South Carolina businesses remain open to legal action. As of last week, five pandemic liability lawsuits had been filed against South Carolina businesses.
“Our members are doing everything they can to follow public health guidelines to protect their customers and their employees,” Benjamin Homeyer, state director of the South Carolina National Federation for Independent Business (NFIB), told The Center Square. “South Carolina’s small businesses already are facing a long and difficult recovery. Without these crucial liability protections, some businesses could be forced to close for good.”
Sixty-eight percent of small business owners are moderately or very concerned about increased liability because of the coronavirus, according to an NFIB survey.
A liability protection measure was discussed by South Carolina lawmakers earlier this year, but it did not pass before the Legislature recessed because of COVID-19.
The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce is encouraging legislators to take up the issue when they return to pass a budget in September.
“We were hopeful that policymakers on the state level were going to take it up when they were in town several weeks ago dealing with CARES Act funding, but they did not,” Pitts said. “We’re still hopeful that when they come back at the end of the summer to pass a budget, it will be front and center.”
