RCW 4.22.080
Year 2000 failure -- Actions against agency or
public service provider -- Definitions. (Expires December 31,
2009.)
(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.]