Recreation bill clears House

A bill that could limit the liability of businesses like raft companies and outfitters passed the state House last week.

The Montana Recreation Responsibility Act, or House Bill 150, is sponsored by House District 3 legislator Dee Brown and requires that people who engage in potentially dangerous activities “assume the inherent risks in that sport or recreational opportunity and (are) responsible for injuries and damages.”

The bill runs the gamut of sports, from rodeos to rafting, baseball to skiing. Brown introduced a similar bill in 2005 that had plenty of local support — particularly from the rafting industry — but it was never passed.

That draft included government agencies. This bill eliminates those agencies.

But Al Smith, of the Montana Trial Lawyers Association, said his group was against the bill and that it was likely unconstitutional.

He also claimed the bill wouldn’t lower insurance rates for rafting companies and the like because the bill would almost assuredly be challenged in court, and insurance rates, in part, are dictated by attorney fees.

Smith also argued that when the bill was brought up in committee, no one testified that it would,

in fact, lower insurance rates or protect businesses from lawsuits.

Brown said she wasn’t surprised by Smith’s opposition, but this law doesn’t prohibit lawsuits, though it will, in effect, act as a filter by determining inherent risk in cases. In other words, she noted, businesses can’t be expected to protect people against every risk in an activity.

Brown’s bill is now being considered by the Senate. The law is similar to a law that’s already on the books in Wyoming.