The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Georgia
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Ga. Const. art. III (legislative power); amends Title 51 (Torts) by adding Chapter 16
- Issued
- 2020-08-05 Aug. 5, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-08-05 (Section 5: effective upon approval) (read as 2020-08-05)
- End
- Applies to causes of action accruing until July 14, 2021 (Section 4); extended to July 14, 2022 by HB 112 (Ex. DUT-GA-013) (read as 2021-07-14)
- In force
- Aug. 5, 2020 to July 14, 2021
- Quarters
- 2020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Standing dutyOperating condition
- Addressees
- specified businesses and persons: every 'entity' (defined to include corporations, companies, partnerships, religious or educational organizations, governmental bodies and their officers, employees, contractors and vendors), every 'healthcare facility' and 'healthcare provider,' and every 'individual'
- Character
- liability shield condition
- Collection
- Standing duties: Georgia DUT-GA
Operative words
No healthcare facility, healthcare provider, entity, or individual, shall be held liable for damages in an action involving a COVID-19 liability claim... unless the claimant proves that the actions of the healthcare facility, healthcare provider, entity, or individual, showed: gross negligence, willful and wanton misconduct, reckless infliction of harm, or intentional infliction of harm.
Penalty
None (an immunity conditioned on the standard of conduct); a business below the standard, or one that did not print or post the warning, answered in tort under sections 34-7-20 and 51-3-1 (Exs. DUT-GA-010, DUT-GA-011)
What it required
The Act's condition is a standard of conduct, not a waiver: an entity keeps the immunity only while its conduct stays above gross negligence (the absence of even slight diligence, O.C.G.A. section 51-1-4), and the rebuttable presumption of assumption of risk in section 51-16-3 attaches only where the business printed the statutory warning on the ticket or receipt or posted, at the point of entry, a sign in at least one-inch Arial font reading 'Warning: Under Georgia law, there is no liability for an injury or death of an individual entering these premises if such injury or death results from the inherent risks of contracting COVID-19. You are assuming this risk by entering these premises.' Section 51-16-5 provides that the chapter 'shall not modify or supersede' Title 16 (crimes), Title 31 (health 'or any state regulations related thereto'), Chapter 9 of Title 34 (workers' compensation) or Chapter 3 of Title 38 (emergency management), so every health and emergency-order duty stood in full force beside the immunity.
Retrieval noteEnrolled Act ('AS PASSED') as posted by the Office of the Governor (2020 signed legislation). Pins: Section 1 findings (the Act continues 'certain protections provided to healthcare institutions, facilities, and workers in the Governor's Executive Orders dated April 14, 2020, and May 12, 2020' beyond the Public Health State of Emergency) at PDF p. 1; section 51-16-1 definitions at pp. 2-4 ('COVID-19 liability claim' covers 'transmission, infection, exposure, or potential exposure of COVID-19 to a claimant... on the premises of any entity'; 'premises' covers 'any property owned, occupied, leased, operated, maintained, or managed by an individual or entity, whether residential, agricultural, commercial, industrial, or other real property'); section 51-16-2 at p. 4; section 51-16-3 at pp. 4-5; section 51-16-4 at p. 5; section 51-16-5 at p. 5; Sections 4-6 at p. 6. The Executive Orders of April 14 and May 12, 2020 referred to in the findings (designating healthcare workers and facilities as auxiliary emergency management workers for purposes of section 38-3-35) are not in the library; the standing immunity they invoked is Ex. DUT-GA-019. Georgia's condition is a standard-of-care condition (gross negligence) and a signage condition; the Act does not condition immunity on compliance with governmental health guidance in terms, and this record states that exactly.