§ 4.22.080. Year 2000 failure -- Actions against agency or public service provider -- Definitions
(1) The definitions in this section apply throughout this section and *RCW 4.24.650, 48.18.560, 51.04.140, and 82.32.420.
(a) "Agency" means any state or local government board, commission, bureau, committee, department, institution, division, or tribunal in the legislative, executive, or judicial branch, including elective and legislative offices, institutions of higher education created and supported by state government, counties, cities, towns, special purpose districts, local service districts, municipal corporations, quasi-municipal corporations, and political subdivisions of such agencies and corporations, and any officer, employee, or agent of these entities acting within the scope of the officer, employee, or agent's employment or duties. "Agency" does not include municipal electric or gas utilities formed under Title 35 RCW or electric public utility districts formed under Title 54 RCW.
(b) "Electric cooperative utility" means any nonprofit, member-owned cooperative organized under chapter 23.86 RCW and engaged in the business of distributing electric energy in the state.
(c) "Electric mutual utility" means any nonprofit, member-owned corporation or association organized under chapter 24.06 RCW and engaged in the business of distributing electric energy in the state.
(d) "Electronic computing device" means any computer hardware or software, computer chip, embedded chip, process control equipment, or other information system used to capture, store, manipulate, or process data, or that controls, monitors, or assists in the operation of physical apparatus that is not primarily used as a computer, but that relies on automation or digital technology to function, including but not limited to vehicles, vessels, buildings, structures, facilities, elevators, medical equipment, traffic signals, factory machinery, and the like.
(e) "Public service provider" means any municipal electric or gas utility formed under Title 35 RCW, electric public utility district formed under Title 54 RCW, electrical company, as defined in RCW 80.04.010, gas company, as defined in RCW 80.04.010, electric cooperative utility, and electric mutual utility.
(f) "Year 2000 failure" means with respect to an electronic computing device, a computing failure that prevents such electronic computing device from accurately interpreting, producing, computing, generating, accounting for, processing, calculating, comparing, or sequencing date or time data from, into, or between the years 1999 and 2000, or with regard to leap year calculations.
(2) In any action against an agency or public service provider, whether based in tort, contract, or otherwise, for damages caused in whole or in part by computational or interpretive errors generated by an electronic computing device in connection with a year 2000 failure:
(a) Any liability shall be several, not joint, and the liability shall be determined as a percentage of fault in a manner consistent with RCW 4.22.070; and
(b) Agencies as defined in this section shall have no liability for the first one hundred dollars of damages per claimant that would otherwise be owed by the agency.
(3) This section shall not apply to any action for damages arising from bodily personal injury, or to wrongful death and survival actions under chapter 4.20 RCW or RCW 4.24.010.
(4) This section does not apply to any claim or cause of action filed after December 31, 2003.
(5) This section expires December 31, 2009.
[1999 c 369 § 1.]
Notes:
*Reviser's note: RCW 4.24.650, 48.18.560, 51.04.140, and 82.32.420 expired December 31, 2006.
Effective date -- 1999 c 369: "This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect immediately [May 17, 1999]." [1999 c 369 § 7.]
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Last modified: April 7, 2009