House Bill No. 352

Introduced By sliter, grinde, stang, clark, brainard, m. taylor, beaudry, holden, gage, estrada, jore, tash, mccann, wiseman, depratu, mood, wells, heavy runner, bitney, benedict, baer, mcgee, walters, miller, grosfield, ryan, ohs, orr, curtiss, wagner, hertel, debruycker, jabs, mahlum, franklin, anderson, aklestad, crismore, story, prouse, cobb, simon, mesaros, peck, sprague, swysgood, devlin, thomas, mohl, emerson, mcnutt, beck, keating, barnett, raney, keenan, mercer, zook, quilici, rehbein, holland, foster, devaney, pavlovich, lynch, stovall, knox, glaser

A Bill for an Act entitled: An Act providing that the owner or possessor of stolen personal property or the owner of real property criminally misused without the knowledge of the owner is not liable in the absence of gross negligence for injury or damages arising out of the use or misuse of the property while the property is possessed by another; providing that this immunity does not affect the doctrines of negligence per se and attractive nuisance; and providing an applicability date.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Montana:

Section 1.  Property owner's immunity from damage caused by use of property unlawfully taken. (1) The owner or possessor of personal property that is stolen is not liable in the absence of gross negligence for injury or damage arising out of the use of the property while the property is possessed by another. The owner of real property that is criminally misused by another without the owner's knowledge is not liable in the absence of gross negligence for injury or damage arising out of the misuse. This section includes property taken by theft, robbery, or burglary directly from the person's body or from a place of residence, tent or other recreational structure, or motor vehicle or boat that is owned, possessed, or used by the person owning or possessing the property.

(2) This section does not modify, amend, or eliminate the doctrines of negligence per se or attractive nuisance.

Section 2.  Two-thirds vote required. Because [section 1] limits governmental liability, Article II, section 18, of the Montana constitution requires a vote of two-thirds of the members of each house of the legislature for passage.

Section 3.  Applicability. [This act] applies to injuries and damages occurring after October 1, 1997.

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