WEST virginia legislature

2017 regular session

Committee Substitute

for

Senate Bill 236

By Senators Trump and Weld

[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary; reported on February 22, 2017]

A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §55-7-31, relating to claims or damages for medical monitoring; providing for certain elements for a claim for medical monitoring damages in addition to the underlying cause of action; requiring future medical surveillance, screening tests or monitoring procedures are directly related to a presently existing and diagnosable physical disease or injury of a plaintiff;  requiring that a plaintiff’s presently existing physical disease or injury was caused by the defendant’s conduct; and providing that an increased risk of disease is not a compensable basis for damages in any civil action.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §55-7-31, to read as follows:

ARTICLE 7. ACTIONS FOR INJURIES.

§55-7-31.  Limitations on medical monitoring damages.

Increased risk of disease, whether or not accompanied by physiological or other changes in the human body, is not compensable through damages or any other form of relief under the law of this state, regardless of the legal theory being asserted. In any civil action a defendant cannot be required to pay as damages or provide any other type of legal, injunctive or equitable relief for a plaintiff’s future medical surveillance, screening tests or monitoring procedures unless the plaintiff proves in addition to the other requirements for the underlying cause of action: (1) That such future medical surveillance, screening tests or monitoring procedures are directly related to a presently existing and diagnosable physical disease or injury of the plaintiff; and (2) that the plaintiff’s presently existing physical disease or injury was caused by the defendant’s conduct.