REPORT TITLE:
Counties' Liab/Hazardous Act


DESCRIPTION:
Limits counties' liability for hazardous recreational activities
including animal riding, hiking, off-road motorcycling, hang
gliding, rodeo, sport parachuting, among other activities, except
when death or injury occurred as a direct result of county's
failure to warn when the county had actual knowledge of
physically hazardous conditions, or physically hazardous
condition not known or would not have been known to reasonably
prudent person, or for gross negligence, recklessness, or wilful,
wanton, deliberate conduct.

 
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                                                        2667
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES                H.B. NO.           
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2000                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                   A  BILL  FOR  AN  ACT

RELATING TO LIMITED LIABILITY FOR COUNTIES.



BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 1      SECTION 1.  Chapter 46, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended
 
 2 by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to
 
 3 read as follows:
 
 4      "§46-     Counties' liability limited for hazardous
 
 5 recreational activities.  (a)  Neither a public entity nor a
 
 6 public employee is liable to any person who participates in a
 
 7 hazardous recreational activity, including any person who assists
 
 8 the participant, or to any spectators who knew or reasonably
 
 9 should have known that the hazardous recreational activity
 
10 created a substantial risk of injury to themselves and were
 
11 voluntarily in the place or risk, or having the ability to do so
 
12 failed to leave, for any damage or injury to property or persons
 
13 arising out of that hazardous recreational activity.
 
14      For the purposes of this section, "hazardous recreational
 
15 activity" means a recreational activity which creates a
 
16 substantial (as distinguished from a minor, trivial, or
 
17 insignificant) risk of injury.
 
18      "Hazardous recreational activity" includes:
 
19      (1)  Animal riding, including equestrian competition,
 

 
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 1           archery, bicycle racing or jumping, mountain bicycling,
 
 2           boating, canoeing, diving, hang gliding, hiking,
 
 3           kayaking, motorized vehicle racing, off-road
 
 4           motorcycling or four-wheel driving of any kind,
 
 5           orienteering, pistol and rifle shooting, rock climbing,
 
 6           rocketeering, rodeo, spelunking, sky diving, sport
 
 7           parachuting, paragliding, body contact sports (i.e.,
 
 8           sports in which it is reasonably foreseeable that there
 
 9           will be rough bodily contact with one or more
 
10           participants), skateboarding, inline skating, roller
 
11           hockey, surfing, trampolining, tree climbing, tree rope
 
12           swinging, waterskiing, white water rafting, and
 
13           windsurfing.  For the purposes of this paragraph,
 
14           "mountain bicycling" does not include riding a bicycle
 
15           on paved pathways, roadways, or sidewalks;
 
16      (2)  Any form of diving into water from other than a diving
 
17           board or diving platform, or at any place or from a
 
18           structure where diving is prohibited and reasonable
 
19           warning thereof has been given.
 
20      (b)  In a claim by a person against a county alleging
 
21 personal injury or death that occurred when the person was
 
22 participating in, assisting, or observing a hazardous
 
23 recreational activity on county-owned or controlled property, the
 

 
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 1 county shall be liable only if the injury or death occurred as a
 
 2 direct result of the county's:
 
 3      (1)  Failure to warn when:
 
 4           (A)  The county had actual knowledge of a physically
 
 5                hazardous condition, sufficient time to warn
 
 6                against the condition, and failed to do so; and
 
 7           (B)  When the physically hazardous condition was not
 
 8                known to the person and would not have been known
 
 9                to a reasonably prudent person participating,
 
10                assisting, or observing the same hazardous
 
11                recreational activity;
 
12      (2)  Gross negligence, recklessness, or wilful, wanton, or
 
13           deliberate conduct;
 
14      (3)  When permission to participate in the hazardous
 
15           recreational activity was granted by the county for a
 
16           specific fee.  For the purposes of this paragraph, a
 
17           "specific fee" does not include a fee or consideration
 
18           charged for a general purpose such as a general park
 
19           admission charge, a vehicle entry or parking fee, or an
 
20           administrative or group use application or permit fee,
 
21           as distinguished from a specific fee charged for
 
22           participation in the specific hazardous recreational
 
23           activity out of which the damage or injury arose.
 

 
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 1      (c)  Nothing in this section shall limit the liability of an
 
 2 independent concessionaire, or any person or organization other
 
 3 than the public entity, whether or not the person or organization
 
 4 has a contractual relationship with the public entity to use the
 
 5 public property, for injuries or damages suffered in any case as
 
 6 a result of the operation of a hazardous recreational activity on
 
 7 public property by the concessionaire, person, or organization."
 
 8      SECTION 2.  This Act does not affect rights and duties that
 
 9 matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were
 
10 initiated, before its effective date.
 
11      SECTION 3.  New statutory material is underscored.
 
12      SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
 
13 
 
14                           INTRODUCED BY:_________________________
 

 
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