At the forefront of legislation being considered in the first week of the Montana State Legislature is a bill that will offer liability protections to businesses, health care providers, places of worship, and nonprofit organizations regarding meeting COVID-19 mandates. Senator Steve Fitzgerald has introduced SB 65 which attempts to provide some liability protections.
Almost all business organizations in the state have prioritized liability protections at the top of their goals for this state legislature. And, Governor Greg Gianforte has declared that before he will lift the COVID mask mandate in the state, he must have a bill to sign that will provide liability protection to businesses that are already struggling because of shutdown and other restraints on their operations.
The Montana Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Independent Business, the Montana Farm Bureau, Billings Chamber of Commerce along with many others have made public statements in support of a proposal that would relieve business or any organization from the prospect of being sued should someone declare that they contracted a disease because the mandates were not followed by the organization’s management.
Some opposition has emerged to the proposed legislation, even by business people who say that SB 65 does not address the real problem which is the illegal and most often vague frequently-changing mandates. They suggest that the bill would likely increase the risk of lawsuits.
Democrats oppose the idea of offering any protection of liability, saying that the customers and employees should not suffer the consequences if an employer or business owner fails to provide the required protections.
In general, no one except government employees are immune from any kind of liability should their actions, products or services cause harm.
The threat that most concerns businesses is that frivolous lawsuits will emerge which will further destroy their viability in what is an already weakened state because of the COVID economic shutdowns. Ronda Wiggers, Director of the Montana Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), explained that while it’s likely a business owner would prevail in a lawsuit, the cost of fighting the suit would be enough to destroy the business, especially in the weakened state that most Montana businesses now find themselves.
