The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- New Jersey
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Proposed 'COVID-19 related Business Immunity Act' (not enacted)
- Issued
- 2020-06-01 June 1, 2020
- Effective
- never in force (read as 2020-06-01)
- End
- never in force (died in committee; no general business immunity was enacted in New Jersey in 2020 or 2021)
- In force
- June 1, 2020 (no end date recorded; counted as in force for 120 days)
- Limitation types
- Other
- Addressees
- employers generally (proposed)
- Character
- not enacted
- Collection
- Standing duties: New Jersey DUT-NJ
Operative words
an employer is immune from civil liability for damages or injury resulting from exposure of an individual to COVID-19 on the premises owned or operated by the employer, or during activity managed by the employer.... c. Immunity as described in this section shall not apply to: (1) willful misconduct; (2) reckless infliction of harm; or (3) intentional infliction of harm.
Penalty
What it required
Nothing; the bill would have immunized employers from COVID-19 exposure claims and was not enacted, so every New Jersey business outside health care kept its full common-law duty of care to employees, customers and visitors throughout the six quarters. Character as recorded: not_enacted (legislative history; no legal effect).
Retrieval noteOfficial bill text from the Legislature's publication server (134 KB). The file-name date (2020-06-04) is the fetch reference; the bill's introduction date is June 1, 2020. Saved to document the absence of a general business liability shield in New Jersey, which left the health orders and the Sanitary Code as the measure of the ordinary duty of care. No companion Senate bill was located in this session (S2502 and S2634 returned no text on the publication server).