An Act To Amend the Maine Human Rights Act
Maine Legislature, Session 123, LD 0685
Committee: Judiciary
Amends: 5 MRSA §4581, 5 MRSA §4582-A, 5 MRSA §4583, 5 MRSA §4612, 5 MRSA §4613

Legislative Document 
No. 685 
S.P.222 
February 9, 2007 
An Act To Amend the Maine Human Rights Act 
Reported by Senator NUTTING of Androscoggin for the Maine Human Rights 
Commission pursuant to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 5, section 4566, subsection 11. 
Reference to the Committee on Judiciary suggested and ordered printed under Joint Rule 
218. 
Printed on recycled paper 
JOY J. O'BRIEN 
Secretary of the Senate 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 5 MRSA §4581, sub-§l, as enacted by PL 1989, c. 245, §3, is amended to 
read: 
1. Number of occupants. Nothing in this subchapter limits the applicability of any 
reasonable local, state or federal restrictions regarding the maximum number of 
occupants permitted to occupy a dwelling. Nor does any provision in this sHeseetion 
subchapter regarding familial status apply with respect to housing for older persons. 
Sec. 2. 5 MRS A §4582, 5th ~, as amended by PL 1989, c. 245, §4, is further 
amended to read: 
For any person furnishing rental premises or public accommodations to refuse to rent 
or impose different terms of tenancy to any individual who is a recipient of federal, state 
or local public assistance, including medical assistance and housing subsidies~ primarily 
because of the individual's status as recipient or because of any requirement of such a 
public assistance program; or 
Sec. 3. 5 MRS A §4582-A, sub-§l, as amended by PL 1991, c. 99, §18, is further 
amended to read: 
1. Modifications. For any owner, lessee, sublessee, managing agent or other person 
having the right to sell, rent, lease or manage a housing accommodation, or any of their 
agents to refuse to permit, at the expense of the ~ person with pbyseal physical or mental 
disability, reasonable modifications of existing premises occupied or to be occupied by 
that person if the modifications may be necessary to give that person full enjoyment of 
the premises, except that, with a rental, the landlord, when it is reasonable to do so, may 
condition permission for a modification on the renter's agreeing to restore the interior of 
the premises to the condition that existed before the modification, reasonable wear and 
tear excepted; or 
Sec. 4. 5 MRSA §4582-A, sub-§2, as enacted by PL 1989, c. 779, is amended to 
read: 
2. Accommodations. For any owner, lessee, sublessee, managing agent or other 
person having the right to sell, rent, lease or manage a housing accommodation, or any of 
their agents to refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or 
services when those accommodations are necessary to give that person a person with 
physical or mental disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy the housing. 
Sec. 5. 5 MRSA §4583, as amended by PL 2005, c. 10, § 15, is further amended to 
read: 
§4583. Application 
Nothing in this Act may be construed to prohibit or limit the exercise of the privilege 
of every person and the agent of any person having the right to sell, rent, lease or manage 
a housing accommodation to set up and enforce specifications in the selling, renting, 
leasing or letting or in the furnishings of facilities or services in connection with the 
facilities that are consistent with business necessity and are not based on the race, color, 
sex, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, religion, country of ancestral origin, 
or familial status of or the receipt of public assistance payments e.f Qy any prospective or 
actual purchaser, lessee, tenant or occupant. Nothing in this Act may be construed to 
prohibit or limit the exercise of the privilege of every persor1 and the agent of any person 
making loans for or offering financial assistance in the acquisition, construction, 
rehabilitation, repair or maintenance of housing accommodations; to set standards and 
preferences, terms, conditions, limitations or specifications for the granting of loans or 
financial assistance that are consistent with business necessity and are not based on the 
race, color, sex, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, religion, country of 
ancestral origin, or familial status of or the receipt of public assistance payments e.fQy the 
applicant for a loan or financial assistance or of any existing or prospective owner, lessee, 
tenant or occupant of housing accommodation. 
Sec. 6. 5 MRSA §4612, sub-§l, ~A, as amended by PL 1993, c. 578, §1, is 
further amended to read: 
A. 
The commission or its delegated single commissioner or investigator shall 
provide an opportunity for the complainant and respondent to resolve the matter by 
settlement agreement prior to a determination of whether there are reasonable 
grounds to believe that unlawful discrimination has occurred. Evidence of conduct or 
statements made in compromise settlement negotiations, offers of settlement and any 
final agreement are confidential and may not be made p~81i6 disclosed without the 
written consent of the parties to the proceeding nor used as evidence in any 
subsequent proceeding, civil or criminal, except in a civil action alleging a breach of 
agreement filed by the commission or a party. Notwithstanding this paragraph. the 
commission and its employees have discretion to disclose such information to a party 
as is reasonably necessary to facilitate settlement. The commission may adopt rules 
providing for a 3rd-party neutral mediation program. The rules may permit one or 
more parties to a proceeding to agree to pay the costs of mediation. The commission 
may receive funds from any source for the purposes of implementing a 3rd-party 
neutral mediation program. 
Sec. 7. 5 MRSA §4612, sub-§l, ~, as enacted by PL 1985, c. 585, §l, is 
amended to read: 
B. 
The commission or its delegated commissioner or investigator shall conduct 
such preliminary investigation as it Seems determines necessary to determine whether 
there are reasonable grounds to believe that unlawful discrimination has occurred. In 
conducting an investigation, the commission, or its designated representative, shall 
must have access at all reasonable times to premises, records, documents, individuals 
and other evidence or possible sources of evidence and may examine, record and 
copy those materials and take and record the testimony or statements of such persons 
as are reasonably necessary for the furtherance of the investigation. The commission 
may issue subpoenas to compel access to or production of those materials or the 
appearance of those persons, subject to section 4566, subsections 4-A and 4-B, and 
may serve interrogatories on a respondent to the same extent as interrogatories served 
in aid of a civil action in the Superior Court. The commission may administer oaths. 
I 
The complaint and evidence collected during the investigation of the complaint, other 
than data identifying persons not parties to the complaint, shall beeome i§ a matter of 
public record at the conclusion of the investigation of the complaint prior to a 
determination by the commission. An investigation is concluded upon issuance of a 
letter of dismissal or upon listing of the complaint on a published commission 
meeting agenda, whichever first occurs. Prior to the conclusion of an investigation, 
all information possessed by the commission relating to the investigation is 
confidential and may not be disclosed, except that the commission and its employees 
have discretion to disclose such information as is reasonably necessary to further the 
investigation. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the complaint and 
evidence collected during the investigation of the complaint may be used as evidence 
in any subsequent proceeding, civil or criminal. 
Sec. 8. 5 MRSA §4612, sub-§3, as amended by PL 1985, c. 585, §2, is further 
amended to read: 
3. Informal methods, conciliation. If the commission finds reasonable grounds to 
believe that unlawful discrimination has occurred, but finds no emergency of the sort 
contemplated in subsection 4, paragraph B, it shall endeavor to eliminate such 
discrimination by informal means such as conference, conciliation and persuasion. 
Nothing Everything said or done as part of such endeavors is confidential and may not be 
made pllblie disclosed without the written consent of the parties to the proceeding, nor 
used as evidence in any subsequent proceeding, civil or criminal, except in a civil action 
alleging a breach of agreement filed by the commission or a party. Notwithstanding this 
subsection, the commission and its employees have discretion to disclose such 
information to a party as is reasonably necessary to facilitate conciliation. If the case is 
disposed of by such informal means in a manner satisfactory to a majority of the 
commission, it shall dismiss the proceeding. 
Sec. 9. 5 MRSA §4613, sub-§2, ~, as amended by PL 1997, c. 400, §1, is 
further amended to read: 
B. 
If the court finds that unlawful discrimination occurred, its judgment must 
specify an appropriate remedy or remedies for that discrimination. The remedies may 
include, but are not limited to: 
(1) An order to cease and desist from the unlawful practices specified in the 
order; 
(2) 
An order to employ or reinstate a victim of unlawful employment 
discrimination, with or without back pay; 
(3) An order to accept or reinstate such a person in a union; 
(4) 
An order to rent or sell a specified housing accommodation, or one 
substantially identical to that accommodation if controlled by the respondent, to a 
victim of unlawful housing discrimination; 
(5) An order requiring the disclosure of the locations and descriptions of all 
housing accommodations that the violator has the right to sell, rent, lease or 
managet and forbidding the sale, rental or lease of those housing 
accommodations until the violator has given security to ~ 
ensure compliance 
with any order entered against the violator and with all provisions of this Act. An 
order may continue the court's jurisdiction until the violator has demonstrated 
compliance, and may defer decision on some or all relief until after a 
probationary period and a further hearing on the violator's conduct during that 
period; 
(6) An order to pay the victim, in cases of unlawful price discrimination, 3 times 
the amount of any excessive price demanded and paid by reason of that unlawful 
discrimination; 
(7) 
An order to pay to the victim of unlawful discrimination, other than 
employment discrimination in the case of a respondent who has more than 14 
employees, or, if the commission brings action on behalf of the victim, an order 
to pay to the victim, the commission or both, civil penal damages not in excess of 
$10,000 in the case of the first order under this Act against the respondent, not in 
excess of $25,000 in the case of a 2nd order against the respond~nt arising under 
the same subchapter of this Act and not in excess of $50,000 in the case of a 3rd 
or subsequent order against the respondent arising under the same subchapter of 
this Act, except that the total amount of civil penal damages awarded in any 
action filed under this Act may not exceed the limits contained in this 
subparagraph; 
(8) In cases of intentional employment discrimination with respondents who 
have more than 14 employees, compensatory and punitive damages as provided 
in this subparagraph. 
(a) In an action brought by a complaining party under section 4612 and this 
section against a respondent who engaged in unlawful intentional 
discrimination prohibited under sections 4571 to 4575, if the complaining 
party can not recover under 42 United States Code, Section 1981 (1994), the 
complaining party may recover compensatory and punitive damages as 
allowed in this subparagraph in addition to any relief authorized elsewhere in 
this subsection from the respondent. 
(b) When a discriminatory practice involves the provision of a reasonable 
accommodation, damages may not be awarded under this subparagraph when 
the covered entity demonstrates good faith efforts, in consultation with the 
person with the disability who has infonned the covered entity that 
accommodation is needed, to identify and make a reasonable accommodation 
that would provide that individual with an equally effective opportunity and 
would not cause an undue hardship on the operation of the business. 
(c) 
A complaining party may recover punitive damages under this 
subparagraph against a respondent if the complaining party demonstrates that 
the respondent engaged in a discriminatory practice or discriminatory 
practices with malice or with reckless indifference to the rights of an 
aggrieved individual protected by this Act. 
(d) Compensatory damages awarded under this subparagraph do not include 
back pay, interest on back payor any other type of relief authorized 
elsewhere under this subsection. 
( e) The sum of compensatory damages awarded under this subparagraph for 
future pecuniary losses, emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental 
anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, other nonpecuniary losses and the amount 
of punitive damages awarded under this section may not exceed for each 
complaining party: 
(i) In the case of a respondent who has more than 14 and fewer than 101 
employees in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or 
preceding calendar year, $50,000; 
(ii) In the case of a respondent who has more than 100 and fewer than 
employees in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or 
preceding calendar year, $100,000; 
(iii) In the case of a respondent who has more than 200 and fewer than 
employees in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or 
preceding calendar year, $200,000; and 
(iv) In the case of a respondent who has more than 500 employees in 
each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar 
year, $300,000. 
(f) Nothing in this subparagraph may be construed to limit the scope of, or 
the relief available under, 42 United States Code, Section 1981 (1994). 
(g) If a complaining party seeks compensatory or punitive damages under 
this subparagraph, any party may demand a trial by jury and the court may 
not inform the jury of the limitations described in division (e). 
(h) This subparagraph does not apply to recoveries for a practice that is 
unlawful only because of its disparate impact. 
(i) Punitive damages may not be included in a judgment or award against a 
governmental entity, as defined in Title 14, section 8102, subsection 2, or 
against an employee of a governmental entity based on a claim that arises out 
of an act or omission occurring within the course or scope of that employee's 
employment; and 
(9) In addition to other remedies in subparagraphs (1) to (8), an order to pay 
actual damages in the case of discriminatory housing practices. 
This 
subparagraph is not intended to limit actual damages available to a plaintiff 
alleging other discrimination if the remedy of actual damages is otherwise 
available under this Act-:~ 
SUMMARY 
This bill amends the Maine Human Rights Act to correct typographical errors, clarify 
the protections of the act, make certain Maine Human Rights Commission records 
confidential and prohibit unreasonable housing practices that have a disparate impact on 
P"ge 5 - 123LR0662(Ol)-1 
the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, religion, 
country of ancestral origin, familial status or the receipt of public assistance payments.