| 1 | A bill to be entitled |
| 2 | An act relating to street lighting; creating s. 768.1382, |
| 3 | F.S.; limiting liability for certain public and private |
| 4 | entities providing street lights, security lights, or |
| 5 | other similar illumination; providing that certain |
| 6 | entities do not owe duty to the public to provide, |
| 7 | operate, or maintain illumination; providing for |
| 8 | exceptions; prohibiting certain findings of fault or |
| 9 | responsibility of an entity not a party to litigation; |
| 10 | providing for severability; providing for application; |
| 11 | providing an effective date. |
| 12 |
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| 13 | Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: |
| 14 |
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| 15 | Section 1. Section 768.1382, Florida Statutes, is created |
| 16 | to read: |
| 17 | 768.1382 Street lights and other similar illumination; |
| 18 | limitation on liability.--Neither the state, any of the state's |
| 19 | officers, agencies, or instrumentalities, any political |
| 20 | subdivision, as defined in s. 1.01, nor any electric utility, as |
| 21 | defined in s. 366.02(2), that provides, operates, or maintains |
| 22 | street lights, security lights, or other similar illumination |
| 23 | shall be held liable for any civil damages for injury or death |
| 24 | affected or caused by the adequacy or failure of illumination of |
| 25 | such lights, regardless of whether the adequacy or failure of |
| 26 | illumination is alleged or demonstrated to have contributed in |
| 27 | any manner to the injury or death, unless such liability was |
| 28 | expressly assumed by written contract. No such entity that |
| 29 | provides, operates, or maintains a manner of illumination as |
| 30 | described in this section owes a duty to the public to provide, |
| 31 | operate, or maintain the illumination in any manner, except that |
| 32 | such a duty may be expressly assumed by written contract. In any |
| 33 | civil action for damages arising out of personal injury or |
| 34 | wrongful death when an entity's fault regarding the maintenance |
| 35 | of street lights is at issue, if the entity responsible for |
| 36 | maintaining the street lights is not a party to the litigation, |
| 37 | the entity shall not be deemed or found in such action to be in |
| 38 | any way at fault or responsible for the injury or death that |
| 39 | gave rise to the damages. |
| 40 | Section 2. If any provision of this act or its application |
| 41 | to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity |
| 42 | does not affect other provisions or applications of this act |
| 43 | which can be given effect without the invalid provision or |
| 44 | application, and to this end the provisions of this act are |
| 45 | declared severable. |
| 46 | Section 3. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law |
| 47 | and shall apply to causes of action that accrue on or after the |
| 48 | effective date. |