| 1 | The Committee on Judiciary recommends the following: |
| 2 |
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| 3 | Committee Substitute |
| 4 | Remove the entire bill and insert: |
| 5 | A bill to be entitled |
| 6 | An act relating to street lighting; creating s. 768.1382, |
| 7 | F.S.; limiting liability for certain public and private |
| 8 | entities providing street lights, security lights, or |
| 9 | other similar illumination; providing that certain |
| 10 | entities do not owe duty to the public to provide, |
| 11 | operate, or maintain illumination; providing for |
| 12 | exceptions; prohibiting certain findings of fault or |
| 13 | responsibility of an entity not a party to litigation; |
| 14 | providing for severability; providing for application; |
| 15 | providing an effective date. |
| 16 |
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| 17 | Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: |
| 18 |
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| 19 | Section 1. Section 768.1382, Florida Statutes, is created |
| 20 | to read: |
| 21 | 768.1382 Street lights and other similar illumination; |
| 22 | limitation on liability.--Neither the state, nor any of its |
| 23 | officers, agencies, or instrumentalities, nor any electric |
| 24 | utility, as defined in s. 366.02(2), that provides or operates |
| 25 | or maintains street lights, security lights, or other similar |
| 26 | illumination shall be held liable for any civil damages for |
| 27 | injury or death affected or caused by the adequacy or failure of |
| 28 | illumination of such lights, regardless of whether the adequacy |
| 29 | or failure of illumination is alleged or demonstrated to have |
| 30 | contributed in any manner to the injury or death, unless such |
| 31 | liability was expressly assumed by written contract. No such |
| 32 | entity that provides, operates, or maintains a manner of |
| 33 | illumination as described in this section owes a duty to the |
| 34 | public to provide, operate, or maintain the illumination in any |
| 35 | manner, except that such a duty may be expressly assumed by |
| 36 | written contract. In any civil action for damages arising out of |
| 37 | personal injury or wrongful death when an entity's fault |
| 38 | regarding the maintenance of street lights is at issue, if the |
| 39 | entity responsible for maintaining the street lights is not a |
| 40 | party to the litigation, the entity shall not be deemed or found |
| 41 | in such action to be in any way at fault or responsible for the |
| 42 | injury or death that gave rise to the damages. |
| 43 | Section 2. If any provision of this act or its application |
| 44 | to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity |
| 45 | does not affect other provisions or applications of this act |
| 46 | which can be given effect without the invalid provision or |
| 47 | application, and to this end the provisions of this act are |
| 48 | declared severable. |
| 49 | Section 3. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law |
| 50 | and shall apply to causes of action that accrue on or after the |
| 51 | effective date. |