The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Missouri
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Legislative act amending chapter 537, RSMo (torts and actions for damages)
- Issued
- 2021-07-07 July 7, 2021
- Effective
- 2021-08-28
- End
- 2025-08-28 ('shall expire four years after the effective date of this act,' § 537.1035.1) (read as 2025-08-28)
- In force
- Aug. 28, 2021 to Aug. 28, 2025
- Quarters
- 2021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Workplace rulesStanding dutyOperating condition
- Addressees
- every 'individual or entity engaged in businesses, services, activities, or accommodations' ('any act by an individual or entity, irrespective of whether the act is carried on for profit,' § 537.1000(1)); health care providers (§ 537.1010); makers and sellers of covered products (§ 537.1015)
- Character
- liability shield condition
- Collection
- Standing duties: Missouri DUT-MO
Operative words
no individual or entity... shall be liable in any COVID-19 exposure action unless the plaintiff can prove by clear and convincing evidence that: (1) The individual or entity engaged in recklessness or willful misconduct that caused an actual exposure to COVID-19; and (2) The actual exposure to COVID-19 caused the personal injury of the plaintiff.
Penalty
Not a penal statute. The condition it states is evidentiary: protection turns on the absence of recklessness or willful misconduct and, for the assumption-of-risk presumption, on posting the statutory warning; the act does not, in terms, condition protection on compliance with public-health guidance, and this record states that exactly
What it required
From August 28, 2021 a Missouri business is liable for a COVID-19 exposure only on clear and convincing proof of recklessness or willful misconduct, with 'a rebuttable presumption of an assumption of risk by a plaintiff' when the business 'posts or maintains signs or provides written notice' in the statutory form 'in a clearly visible location at the entrance,' and with the rule that later-adopted mitigation 'policies, practices, or procedures... shall not be considered evidence of liability' (§ 537.1005.4); before that date no Missouri statute displaced the ordinary negligence standard in exposure suits against employers and occupiers.
Retrieval noteThe Truly Agreed To and Finally Passed text from the Missouri Senate's server (370,489 bytes; bill number 0961S.08T). Approval date verified on the Missouri House's Bill Actions page for SB 51 (2021 Regular Session): 'Delivered to Governor 7/07/2021; Approved by Governor (G) 7/07/2021.' Effective date verified from the Revisor's history line for § 537.1005 ('L. 2021 S.B. 51 & 42... effective 28 Aug 2021,' Ex. DUT-MO-012). Section 537.1035.3 creates a statutory cause of action 'replacing any such common law cause of action' and preempting State law 'related to the recovery for personal injuries caused by actual, alleged, feared, or potential for exposure to COVID-19' from the effective date. Missouri enacted no 2020 liability shield and the Governor issued no liability-shield executive order; for 2020 Q2 through the end of 2021 Q2 and the first fifty-eight days of 2021 Q3, the ordinary negligence standard, measured against the orders and the guidance they incorporated, governed every exposure claim against a Missouri employer or occupier of premises.