Relating to tort liability in civil actions involving commercial motor vehicles, including employer liability, noneconomic damages, punitive damages, and exemplary damages

This bill relates to tort liability in actions involving commercial motor vehicles. Under current law, the liability of an employer who is a defendant in a civil action involving a commercial motor vehicle for damages caused by negligence of an employee acting within the scope and course of employment is based on respondeat superior if the employer makes certain stipulations. On motion of an employer, a trial court shall dismiss from the action any claim of the employer’s direct negligence in hiring, training, supervising, or trusting an employee, or other claim of direct negligence on the part of the employer for the employee’s harmful conduct, or other similar claims, if the employer stipulates that at the time of the event that caused the damages that the person whose negligence is the basis of the action was the employer’s employee and the employee was acting within the course and scope of employment with the employer. The bill repeals current law and makes an employer liable for an employee’s negligence and may be held responsible for direct negligence relating to hiring, training, supervising, or trusting an employee, or other claims of direct negligence on the part of the employee’s harmful conduct, subject to certain limitations contained in Code chapter 671A (negligent hiring —— limitations on liability) relating to convictions for public offenses, with certain exceptions. Current law limits the amount of noneconomic damages available against the owner or operator of a commercial motor vehicle for personal injury or death to $5 million regardless of the number of derivative claims, theories of liability, or defendants in the civil action. The bill repeals this cap. Under current law, punitive or exemplary damages may be awarded if, by a preponderance of clear, convincing, and satisfactory evidence, the conduct of the defendant from which the claim arose constituted willful and wanton disregard for the rights or safety of another. In cases involving the operation of a commercial vehicle, the full amount of the award of punitive or exemplary damages shall be paid to the claimant. Under the bill, in cases involving commercial vehicles, the amount of punitive and exemplary damages paid to a claimant shall not exceed 25 percent, with the remainder awarded to the civil reparations trust fund, unless the conduct of the defendant was directed specifically at the claimant, or at the person from which the claimant’s claim is derived. Funds in the civil reparations trust fund are used for purposes of indigent civil litigation programs or insurance assistance programs.