Committee trims motor-carrier bill, narrows scope and moves amended measure forward

The Judiciary Committee took multiple amendments to Senate Bill 2206, which concerns limitations on damages in civil actions involving commercial vehicles.

Witnesses and proponents had proposed amendments including changing the statutory statute-of-limitations period, adjusting monetary caps on non-economic damages, and altering terminology ("vehicle" in place of "carrier"). Committee members agreed to strike sections 3 and 4 of the bill in order to remove portions of the draft that raised the most disagreement; the motion to strike those sections was adopted.

The committee also moved to adopt a three-year statute of limitations for the actions addressed by the bill (referencing the state's Century Code sections for three-year limitations rather than the two-year or six-year sections cited in the original draft). Committee members discussed where the statutory citation should be inserted and confirmed the carve-out would be placed under the three-year limitations section (28-01-17) so that other personal-injury limitations were not unintentionally changed.

Lawmakers debated caps on non-economic damages and whether a jury should be informed of such a cap. Some members argued caps protect the commercial-vehicle industry and insurers; others said non-economic harms are difficult to quantify and objected to imposing statutory limits. The committee also approved a technical change to replace the word "carrier" with "vehicle" in the bill's text.

After three rounds of amendment the committee moved a due-pass recommendation on SB 2206 as three-times amended. The motion was made by Sen. Lueck and seconded by Sen. Paulson. A roll call recorded the committee's vote and the chair announced the motion carried.