TITLE 6

ACTIONS IN PARTICULAR CASES

CHAPTER 9

TORT CLAIMS AGAINST GOVERNMENTAL ENTITIES

6-926.  Judgment or claims in excess of comprehensive liability plan — Reduction by court — Limits of liability. (1) The combined, aggregate liability of a governmental entity and its employees for damages, costs and attorney’s fees under this chapter, on account of bodily or personal injury, death or property damage, or other loss as the result of any one (1) occurrence or accident regardless of the number of persons injured or the number of claimants, shall not exceed and is limited to five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000), unless the governmental entity has purchased applicable, valid, collectible liability insurance coverage in excess of said limit, in which event the controlling limit shall be the remaining available proceeds of such insurance. For claims arising from construction, operation or maintenance of impoundments, canals, laterals, drains or associated facilities that are under the supervision or control of the operating agency of irrigation districts whose board consists of directors of its member districts, the combined aggregate limit of liability for the operating agency, its member irrigation districts and their respective employees shall be the combined aggregate limit of a single governmental entity under this section. If any judgment or judgments, including costs and attorney’s fees that may be awarded, are returned or entered, and in the aggregate total more than five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000), or the limits provided by said valid, collectible liability insurance, if any, whether in one (1) or more cases, the court shall reduce the amount of the award or awards, verdict or verdicts, or judgment or judgments in any case or cases within its jurisdiction so as to reduce said aggregate loss to said applicable statutory limit or to the limit or limits provided by said valid, collectible insurance, if any, whichever is greater.

(2)  Limits of liability specified in this section shall not be increased or altered by the fact that a decedent, on account of whose death a wrongful death claim is asserted hereunder, left surviving him or her more than one (1) person entitled to make claim therefor, nor shall the aggregate recovery exceed the single limit provided for injury or death to any one (1) person in those cases in which there is both an injury claim and a death claim arising out of the injury to one (1) person, the intent of this section being to limit such liabilities and recoveries in the aggregate to one (1) limit only.

(3)  The entire exposure of the entity and its employee or employees hereunder shall not be enlarged by the number of liable employees or the theory of concurrent or consecutive torts or tort feasors or of a sequence of accidents or incidents if the injury or injuries or their consequences stem from one (1) occurrence or accident.

(4)  In no case shall any court enter judgment, or allow any judgment to stand, which results in the limit of liability provided in this section to be exceeded in any manner or respect. If any court has jurisdiction of two (2) or more such claims in litigation in which the adjudication is simultaneous and, in the aggregate, exceeds the limits provided in this section, the reduction shall be pro rata in a proportion consistent with the relative amounts of loss of the claimants before the court; otherwise, the reduction shall be determined and made in view of limits remaining after the prior settlement of any other such claims or the prior satisfaction of any other such judgments, and no consideration shall be given to other such outstanding claims, if any, which have not been settled or satisfied prior thereto.

(5)  The court shall reduce any judgment in excess of the limits provided by this act in any matter within its jurisdiction, whether by reason of the adjudication in said proceedings alone or of the total or aggregate of all such awards, judgments, settlements, voluntary payments or other such loss relevant to the limits provided in this section.

History:

[6-926, added 1984, ch. 96, sec. 3, p. 222; am. 2011, ch. 197, sec. 2, p. 579.]