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106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1577

To establish certain uniform legal principles of liability with respect to

manufacturers of products.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

APRIL 27, 1999

Mr. HOSTETTLER (for himself, Mr. NORWOOD, Mr. STUMP, Mr. HAYES, and

Mr. TANCREDO) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in

each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To establish certain uniform legal principles of liability with

respect to manufacturers of products.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Interstate Commerce

5 Freedom Act’’.
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1 SEC. 2. FINDING AND PURPOSE.

2 (a) FINDING.—The Congress finds that the free flow

3 of interstate commerce is vitally important to the contin4 ued economic vitality of the Nation.

5 (b) PURPOSE.—Based upon the powers contained in

6 Article I, section 8, clause 3 of the United States Constitu7 tion, the purpose of this Act is to promote the free flow

8 of goods and services and to lessen burdens on interstate

9 commerce by establishing certain uniform legal principles

10 of liability with respect to manufacturers of products that

11 have moved in or that otherwise affect interstate com12 merce.

13 SEC. 3. RELATIONSHIP TO STATE AND FEDERAL LAWS.

14 (a) RELATIONSHIP TO STATE LAWS.—This Act pre15 empts the laws of any State to the extent that State laws

16 are inconsistent with this Act, except that this Act shall

17 not preempt any State law that provides greater protec18 tions from liability for manufacturers.

19 (b) RELATIONSHIP TO FEDERAL LAWS.—Nothing in

20 this Act may be construed to supersede or alter any other

21 Federal law.

22 SEC. 4. LIABILITY OF MANUFACTURER FOR HARM PROXI23 MATELY CAUSED BY CRIMINAL OR INTEN24 TIONALLY TORTIOUS ACT OF ANOTHER.

25 In any civil action brought in any State or Federal

26 court alleging liability of a manufacturer for harm result-
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1 ing from a product of the manufacturer, the manufacturer

2 shall not be liable for such harm if a proximate cause of

3 the harm was a criminal or intentionally tortious act of

4 a person other than the manufacturer.

5 SEC. 5. LIABILITY OF MANUFACTURER FOR HARM RESULT6 ING FROM SALE OR MARKETING OF PROD7 UCT.

8 In any civil action brought in any State or Federal

9 court alleging liability of a manufacturer for harm result10 ing from any sale or marketing of a product of the manu11 facturer, the manufacturer shall not be liable for such

12 harm unless the manufacturer failed to substantially com13 ply with a State or Federal statute applicable to the sale

14 or marketing of such product and such failure was a proxi15 mate cause of the harm.

16 SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.

17 For purposes of this Act, the following definitions

18 shall apply:

19 (1) CLAIMANT.—The term ‘‘claimant’’ means a

20 person who brought the civil action against the man21 ufacturer, or a person on whose behalf the civil ac22 tion was brought.

23 (2) HARM.—The term ‘‘harm’’ includes any

24 physical, nonphysical, economic, or noneconomic

25 loss.
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1 (3) MANUFACTURER.—The term ‘‘manufac2 turer’’ means, with respect to a product, any person

3 who produced, created, made, constructed, or de4 signed the product.

5 (4) PRODUCT.—The term ‘‘product’’ means any

6 object or substance produced, created, made, con7 structed, or designed for commercial or personal use

8 that has moved in or that otherwise affects inter9 state commerce.

10 (5) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any

11 State of the United States, the District of Columbia,

12 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mar13 iana Islands, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American

14 Samoa, and any other territory or possession of the

15 United States, or any political subdivision of any of

16 the foregoing.

17 SEC. 7. APPLICABILITY.

18 This Act shall apply to any civil action commenced

19 after the date of enactment of this Act.

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