Livestock disease reporting and liability.

WORKING DRAFT
2012
STATE OF
WYOMING
12LSO-0233

SENATE FILE
NO.
SF0020

Livestock disease reporting and liability
.

Sponsored by:

Senator(s) Geis

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to
livestock; imposing liability for the failure to give notice of diseased livestock as specified; assigning burdens of proof; providing exceptions to liability;
and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.
W.S. 11
‑
19
‑
102 by creating new subsections (d) and (e) is amended to read:

11
‑
19
‑
102.

Duty of public to report diseases; list of reportable diseases; failure to comply or obstruction of duty;
liability;

penalties
.

(d)

Any
person who knows or through reasonable diligence should know
that they own or have in
their
possession
an animal
infected with any disease identified
under subsection (a) of this section
and who transfer
s
owners
hip or possession of the animal
to another person
, or who allows the animal
to commingle with
an uninfected animal
,

is
liable for the economic damages caused
by the spread of the disease to an uninfected animal.
In addition to the conditions for liability and recovery set in subsection (e) of this section, d
amages shall be available under this section only to a transferee who

accepts the
diseased animal directly from the liable person and to the owner of an animal that becomes infected as the r
esult of direct contact with
the
diseased animal.

The burden of proving liability and damages under this section shall be upon the person claiming damages
. A
ny person who
files a claim for recovery under this subsection alleging facts known to be false
is liable for treble the damages claimed and reasonable attorney fees.

(e)

No person who has received written notice that an animal may be infected with a disease identified in subsection (a) of this section prior to coming into
possession
of the infected animal or prior to the infected animal commingl
ing with livestock owned by the
person shall be entitled to the damages provided by subsection
(d) of this section.

No livestock sales or auction facility shall
be subject to the liability imposed by subsection (d) of this section if the
existence
of disease was not reported to the facility
, if the facility did not know or through reasonable
diligence
should not have known of the
existence
of the disease
or if the facility provided written notice of the disease
to the
person claiming damages
under
subsection (d
) of this section.

Section 2.

This act is effective July 1, 2012.

(END)

1
SF0020