STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1131

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1253

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 1253, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII RULES OF EVIDENCE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to make benevolent gestures inadmissible as evidence of an admission of liability in medical malpractice claims.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Medical Association, the Healthcare Association of Hawaii and Kaiser Permanente.  The Attorney General opposed the bill in its present form.  The Judiciary's Standing Committee on the Rules of Evidence and Consumer Lawyers of Hawaii provided comments.

     Your Committee finds it appropriate to allow individuals and entities to express sympathy and condolence without the expression being used against the individual or entity to establish civil liability, even if the individual or entity is not a health care provider.  Your Committee notes that a separate measure dealing with apologies by medical care providers, S.B. No. 813, S.D. 1, Relating to Medical Liability, is moving through the legislative process.

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1)  Deleting the provisions that confine the bill to civil actions against health care providers, and benevolent gestures made to a patient or patient's family; and

(2)  Inserting text from S.B. No. 1339, S.D. 1, to render evidence of statements or gestures that express sympathy, commiseration, or condolence regarding the consequences of an event in which a declarant participated inadmissible to prove liability for a claim growing out of the event, without requiring exclusion of apologies that acknowledge or imply fault.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1253, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1253, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair