Senate Bill sb1790

    Florida Senate - 2005                                  SB 1790

    By the Committee on Judiciary





    590-1218-05

  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to street lighting; creating s.

  3         768.1382, F.S.; limiting liability for certain

  4         public and private entities providing street

  5         lights, security lights, or other similar

  6         illumination; providing that certain entities

  7         do not owe duty to the public to provide,

  8         operate, or maintain illumination; providing

  9         for exceptions; prohibiting certain findings of

10         fault or responsibility of an entity not a

11         party to litigation; providing for

12         severability; providing for application;

13         providing an effective date.

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15  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

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17         Section 1.  Section 768.1382, Florida Statutes, is

18  created to read:

19         768.1382  Street lights and other similar illumination;

20  limitation on liability.--Neither the state, any of the

21  state's officers, agencies, or instrumentalities, any

22  political subdivision, as defined in s. 1.01, nor any electric

23  utility, as defined in s. 366.02(2), that provides, operates,

24  or maintains street lights, security lights, or other similar

25  illumination shall be held liable for any civil damages for

26  injury or death affected or caused by the adequacy or failure

27  of illumination of such lights, regardless of whether the

28  adequacy or failure of illumination is alleged or demonstrated

29  to have contributed in any manner to the injury or death,

30  unless such liability was expressly assumed by written

31  contract. No such entity that provides, operates, or maintains

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    Florida Senate - 2005                                  SB 1790
    590-1218-05




 1  a manner of illumination as described in this section owes a

 2  duty to the public to provide, operate, or maintain the

 3  illumination in any manner, except that such a duty may be

 4  expressly assumed by written contract. In any civil action for

 5  damages arising out of personal injury or wrongful death when

 6  an entity's fault regarding the maintenance of street lights

 7  is at issue, if the entity responsible for maintaining the

 8  street lights is not a party to the litigation, the entity

 9  shall not be deemed or found in such action to be in any way

10  at fault or responsible for the injury or death that gave rise

11  to the damages.

12         Section 2.  If any provision of this act or its

13  application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the

14  invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of

15  this act which can be given effect without the invalid

16  provision or application, and to this end the provisions of

17  this act are declared severable.

18         Section 3.  This act shall take effect upon becoming a

19  law and shall apply to causes of action that accrue on or

20  after the effective date.

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.