* WARNING: THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL, INTRODUCTORY COPY OF THE BILL.
THE OFFICIAL COPY CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL IS THE FIRST READER COPY.
INTRODUCTORY*
CITY OF BALTIMORE
COUNCIL BILL R
(Resolution)
Introduced by: Councilmember Kraft
A RESOLUTION ENTITLED
A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning
Title
Request for State Legislation - Maryland - Comparative Negligence
FOR the purpose of requesting the Honorable Chairs and Members of the Baltimore City Senate and House Delegations to the 2007 Maryland General Assembly to introduce and advocate for legislation to replace Maryland's contributory negligence system with a comparative negligence system; urging the Honorable Chairs and Members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings and House Judiciary Committees to give the legislation a favorable report; and, upon passage of the legislation by the Maryland State Senate and the Maryland House of Delegates, entreating the Governor to sign the legislation into law.
Body
Recitals
According to the Maryland State Bar Association, bills to establish comparative negligence in Maryland have been introduced 8 times - 1988, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001. However, despite this decade and a half of impassioned debate to replace the current contributory negligence standard with a more plaintiff-friendly comparative negligence standard, Maryland remains 1 of 5 jurisdictions in the United States, along with Virginia, the District of Columbia, Alabama, and North Carolina, that continues to use the contributory negligence standard.
Contributory negligence, a common law defense to a claim or action in tort, applies to a situation where a plaintiff or claimant has, through their own negligence, caused or contributed to the injury they suffered from a tort. The contributory negligence standard can prevent a plaintiff from collecting damages at all if the plaintiff's own negligence in any way contributed to an injury while comparative negligence, currently used in 46 states, allows a jury to apportion the fault for a plaintiff's injuries between multiple defendants and allows blame to be assigned to the plaintiff, reducing the damage award.
Opponents of comparative negligence contend, in part, that passage of such a statute would unnecessarily disrupt a common law concept of contributory negligence that has evolved over centuries, would lead to greater uncertainty as the courts sorted out the new method, and would challenge supporters of comparative negligence to demonstrate any serious flaws in Maryland's use of the contributory negligence standard, and they hold that passage of comparative negligence would have an adverse affect on the State's business climate.
Supporters of the comparative negligence standard argue that contributory negligence unjustly bars plaintiffs from recovering losses in cases where their responsibility for the damage was minimal and enables insurance companies to avoid financial responsibility in payment of legitimate claims, and they challenge opponents to illustrate any adverse impact to the business climate in the 46 states that have adopted the principle.
Persons should not be barred from recovering for losses they have suffered simply because their actions, in some small way, may have contributed to a situation that causes them significant loss. The time has come for Maryland to join the majority of states in this country that have adopted a comparative negligence standard and to, at long last, do away with the draconian and out-dated concept of contributory negligence.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That this Body requests the Honorable Chairs and Members of the Baltimore City Senate and House Delegations to the 2007 Maryland General Assembly to introduce and advocate for legislation to replace Maryland's contributory negligence system with a comparative negligence system; urges the Honorable Chairs and Members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings and House Judiciary Committees to give the legislation a favorable report; and, upon passage of the legislation by the Maryland State Senate and the Maryland House of Delegates, entreats the Governor to sign the legislation into law.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this Resolution be forwarded to the Honorable Chairs and Members of the Senate and House Delegations to the Maryland General Assembly following the convening of the 2007 Session on January 10, 2007.
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the Mayor, the Governor, the Honorable Chairs and Members of the Baltimore City Senate and House Delegations to the 2007 Maryland General Assembly, the Chairs and Members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings and House Judiciary Committees, the Baltimore City Solicitor, the Executive Director of the Mayor's Office of State Relations, and the Mayor's Legislative Liaison to the City Council.
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