STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2345

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2620

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Water, Land, and Agriculture and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2620 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC LAND LIABILITY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to extend the conclusive presumption of signage as legally adequate warning of dangerous conditions to "non-natural" conditions on unimproved public land.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of the Attorney General, Ko‘olaupoko Hawaiian Civic Club, and four individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Association for Justice.

     Your Committees find that in response to increased public demand for outdoor recreation on public lands and a commensurate increase in liability of the State and counties arising from risks on public lands, the Legislature established a conclusive presumption of signage as legally adequate warning of dangerous natural conditions on improved public lands, which are lands that are part of the state or county park system or Hawaii statewide trail and access system, state parks, and state parkways.  Your Committees find that while non-natural, dangerous conditions may also exist on unimproved public land, the existing conclusive presumption of signage as legally adequate warning does not cover those conditions.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, and Agriculture and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2620, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2620, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, and Agriculture and Judiciary and Labor,

________________________________ GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair