WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE

2024 REGULAR SESSION

Introduced

Senate Bill 811

By Senators Azinger

[Introduced February 16, 2024; referred
to the Committee on the Judiciary]

A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §55-7-32, relating to damages for medical monitoring; providing that increased risk of disease is not a compensable basis for damages or other relief in any civil action; and establishing requirements for an order for payment of medical monitoring expenses.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

Article 7. Actions for Injuries

§55-7-32. Limitations on medical monitoring damages.

Increased risk of disease, whether or not accompanied by physiological or other changes in the human body, is not compensable through damages or any other form of relief under the law of this state, regardless of the legal theory being asserted. In any civil action a defendant cannot be required to pay as damages or provide any other type of legal, injunctive, or equitable relief for a plaintiff's future medical surveillance, screening tests, or monitoring procedures unless the plaintiff proves the following in addition to the other requirements for the underlying cause of action:

(1) That such future medical surveillance, screening tests, or monitoring procedures are directly related to a presently existing and diagnosable physical disease or injury of the plaintiff; and

(2) That the plaintiff's presently existing physical disease or injury was caused by the defendant's conduct.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to limit medical monitoring damages based on increased risk of disease and setting requirements for plaintiff's seeking such damages.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.