An Act To Require Businesses To Make Toilet Facilities Available to Individuals with Certain Medical Conditions
Maine Legislature, Session 124, LD 0232
Committee: Business, Research and Economic Development
Sponsors: RICHARDSON

Legislative Document 
No. 232 
H.P.186 
House of Representatives, January 23,2009 
An Act To Require Businesses To Make Toilet Facilities Available to 
Individuals with Certain Medical Conditions 
Reference to the Committee on Business, Research and Economic Development suggested 
and ordered printed. 
Presented by Representative RICHARDSON of Warren. 
PrimeJ 1111 f!..'cycled papel' 
'I11d~ /11. 7llac~{ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
) 
Sec. 1. 22 MR.SA §1671, as repealed and replaced by PL 1985, c. 737, Pt. A, §53, 
is amended to read: 
. 4 
§1671. Definitions 
As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms 
have the following meanings. 
1. Shopping center. "Shopping center" means any building or facility containing 6 
or more separate retail establishments :wl:iief:l that are planned, developed, owned or 
managed as a unit, with an off-street public parking area of not less than 2 acres. 
2. Customer. "Customer" means an individual who is lawfully on the premises of a 
retail establishment. 
3. Eligible medical condition. "Eligible medical condition" means Crohn's disease, 
ulcerative colitis or any other inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, a 
condition requiring· the use of an ostomy device or any other medical condition that 
requires immediate access to a toilet facility. 
4. Retail establishment. "Retail establishment" means a place of business open to 
the general public for the sale of goods or services. 
Sec. 2. 22 MR.SA §1672-B is enacted to read: 
§1672-B. Retail establishments; access to employee toilet facilities 
) 
1. Access for customers with eligible medical conditions. An owner or employee 
of a retail establishment that has a toilet facility for its employees shall allow a customer 
to use that facility during normal business hours if: 
A. The customer requesting the use of the employee toilet facility suffers from an 
eligible medical condition; 
B. Three or more employees of the retail establishment are working at the time the 
. customer requests the use of the employee toilet facility; 
C. The retail establishment does not normally make a toilet facility available to the 
pUblic; 
D. The employee toilet facility is not located in an area where providing access 
would create an obvious health or safety risk to the customer or an obvious security 
risk to the retail establishment; and 
E. A public toilet facility is not immediately accessible to the customer. 
2. Liability. An owner or employee of a retail establishment is not civilly liable for 
any act or omission in allowing a customer pursuant to subsection 1 to use an employee 
toilet facility that is not a public toilet facility if the act or omission: 
) 
Page I -124LROS77(Ol)-1 
n 
-
, 
"~/ 
A. Is not willful or grossly negligent; 
B. Occurs in an area of the retail establishment that is not accessible to the public; 
and 
c. Results in an injury to or death of the customer or an individual other than an 
employee accompanying the customer. 
3. Modifications not required. A retail establishment is not required to make any 
physical change to an employee toilet facility under this section. 
Sec. 3. Maine Revised Statutes headnote amended; revision clause. In the 
Maine Revised Statutes, Title 22, chapter 270, in the chapter headnote, the words 
"shopping centers" are amended to read "shopping centers and retail establishments" and 
the Revisor of Statutes shall implement this revision when updating, publishing or 
republishing the statutes. 
SUMMARY 
This bill requires an owner or employee of a retail establishment to make an 
employee toilet facility available to an individual upon request if that individual has an 
eligible medical condition as specified in the bill. It includes liability protection for an 
owner or employee of a retail establishment who provides a customer with an eligible 
medical condition access to an employee toilet facility.