Ohio Passes COVID-19 Liability Shield Law

Friday, September 18, 2020

On September 14, 2020, Governor Mike DeWine signed Home Invoice (H.B.) 606 into regulation, offering employers with authorized protections with regards to their efforts to stem the unfold of COVID-19 and making Ohio one in every of a rising variety of states granting comparable civil immunity. In keeping with Governor DeWine, the brand new regulation accomplishes the twin targets of preserving individuals protected and rebuilding the state’s economic system.

Underneath the brand new regulation, Ohio companies will take pleasure in state-law immunity from civil actions introduced by clients, workers, or others “for damages for harm, loss of life, or loss” associated to “the publicity to, or the transmission or contraction” of the novel coronavirus “except it’s established that [the exposure, transmission, or contraction] was by reckless conduct or intentional misconduct or willful or wanton misconduct on the a part of the particular person towards whom the motion is introduced.” The regulation extends protections to all Ohio entities, together with faculties, nonprofit and for-profit entities of any dimension, governmental entities, spiritual entities, schools, and universities.

The regulation additional gives that public well being orders issued by the chief department (i.e., the governor and the Ohio Division of Well being), in addition to public well being orders “from counties and native municipalities, from boards of well being and different businesses, and from any federal authorities company, don’t create any new authorized duties for functions of tort legal responsibility.” The regulation is retroactive to the date of the declared state of emergency in Ohio, March 9, 2020, and can expire on September 30, 2021.

The regulation additionally protects well being care suppliers from each skilled disciplinary motion and tort legal responsibility stemming from the “provision, withholding, or withdrawal” of well being care providers ensuing from the COVID-19 pandemic. As well as, the regulation gives {that a} well being care supplier isn’t topic to skilled disciplinary motion, nor liable in tort, for damages arising from the supplier’s lack of ability “to deal with, diagnose, or check” somebody for “any sickness, illness, or situation, together with the shortcoming to carry out any elective process” as a result of any public well being order issued in relation to the pandemic. Nevertheless, the regulation doesn’t present blanket safety; plaintiffs who can show a well being care supplier acted with “reckless disregard for the results” of their actions, or engaged in “intentional misconduct or willful or wanton misconduct” can nonetheless recuperate damages in a civil motion. Furthermore, well being care suppliers stay topic to skilled disciplinary motion when their actions or omissions represent gross negligence.

The brand new regulation makes it clear that authorities orders is probably not construed as creating new causes of motion for plaintiffs to invoke rather than peculiar negligence causes of motion, and it gives {that a} authorities order is inadmissible as proof {that a} new reason for motion, authorized obligation, or authorized proper has been established. Along with the above protections, the regulation gives for an entire bar of sophistication actions based mostly in entire or partially on allegations {that a} well being care supplier, enterprise, authorities entity, or particular person prompted “publicity to, or the transmission or contraction of” COVID-19.