Controversial Tort Reform Bill Signed by Deukmejian

Gov. George Deukmejian on Wednesday signed a secretly drafted and hastily approved measure designed to make it more difficult to sue doctors, manufacturers and businesses for civil wrongdoing.

Deukmejian vetoed a measure to bail out Los Angeles County’s faltering network of trauma care centers, saying the specially equipped hospital emergency rooms were a local responsibility that could be paid for from other funds he has approved this year. The governor also vetoed a bill that would have allowed most California workers to take four months of unpaid “parental leave” to care for sick, newborn or newly adopted children.

At the same time, the governor signed two “pork-barrel” measures providing more than $20 million to fund legislators’ pet projects, including $250,000 to remodel a Capitol hearing room in honor of Jesse M. Unruh, the state treasurer and former Assembly Speaker who died earlier this year.

Among dozens of other bills that Deukmejian signed Wednesday was a measure barring state tax deductions for business expenses at private clubs that discriminate against women and minorities. That legislation writes into state law regulations adopted earlier this year by the Franchise Tax Board.

Facing a constitutional midnight deadline for acting on bills passed at the end of the 1987 legislative session, Deukmejian was at his desk well into the night, plowing through the last of about 900 bills the Legislature sent to him just before adjourning on Sept. 11.

By late Wednesday, Deukmejian, who has campaigned on the theme of cutting back on government, had vetoed 183 bills passed this year by the Democrat-controlled Legislature. He has now vetoed more bills in five years as governor than Ronald Reagan did during his eight years as California’s chief executive.

But the Republican governor did not veto the controversial tort reform bill approved by the Legislature on the final night of the 1987 session. That bill, negotiated at the last minute to head off a political war among California’s special-interest superpowers, is intended to eliminate some questionable lawsuits from the civil justice system and make it tougher to collect big damage awards.

Supporters say the new law will do this by raising the burden of proof needed to win punitive damages, the awards given to plaintiffs as a way of punishing defendants for malicious conduct. The bill will also require plaintiffs to obtain court approval before suing doctors for punitive damages.

Among the measure’s most controversial elements is a provision expected to virtually end lawsuits over “inherently dangerous” products, including tobacco and alcohol. Proponents said that change and others were needed to save a system increasingly backlogged with frivolous litigation.

‘Significant Reform’

“I’m very pleased,” said Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), author of the bill. “We’ve taken a very significant step toward reducing the cost of civil litigation. This represents the most significant civil justice reform in California in decades.”

But consumer advocates said they were disappointed that Deukmejian, by signing the bill, joined the Legislature in approving a measure that was drafted behind closed doors by representatives for trial lawyers, insurance companies, manufacturers and business.

“This is a bad day for California consumers,” said Harry Snyder, West Coast director for Consumers Union. “It will mean the products and services we get will be less safe because businesses will not have the incentive to be as careful.”

In vetoing the trauma care measure, by Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles), Deukmejian said that funding for the centers could be obtained from another bill he signed that will provide $110 million in block grants for counties statewide with no strings attached.

The Margolin bill would have provided $10 million in state funds, matched by $10 million from the federal government, for trauma centers statewide. The centers are specially equipped hospital emergency rooms where critically injured victims of accidents and violent crime are taken for the most advanced care available.

Los Angeles County, which has seen five of its original 23 trauma centers close because of funding shortfalls, would have received about half of the money provided in Margolin’s measure, the lawmaker said.

“I’m bitterly disappointed by the governor’s decision to not show leadership on this issue at a time when it is called for,” Margolin said.

In his veto message, Deukmejian said the Margolin bill, which was approved by bipartisan majorities in the Senate and the Assembly, would reduce the incentive that hospitals have to collect the money owed them. He suggested that counties could use some of the block grant money to support the trauma centers.

“If these are high-priority programs for a county, the county has local discretion over using these funds for trauma and uncompensated care,” Deukmejian said.

The Margolin bill would have distributed the money through the state’s Medi-Cal program. The more poor and indigent patients that a hospital treated, the more funds it would have received.

The reason for that distribution, Margolin said, is that hospitals with trauma centers that treat a high percentage of poor and uninsured patients are the ones most likely to drop out of the network because they cannot afford to subsidize the care of people who are unable to pay their own medical bills. State reimbursement for such patients is inadequate, he said.

Deukmejian’s veto marks the second time this year that the Republican chief executive has blocked additional funds for the trauma programs, which he has said he considers a local responsibility. In July, the governor deleted $30 million for the centers from the 1987-1988 budget approved by the Legislature.

In other action Wednesday, the governor:

- Signed the two bills that were described in a GOP staff analysis as “pork barrel” measures--one by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and another by Sen. Dan McCorquodale (D-San Jose).

The bills, negotiated by the leaders of both parties, will provide about $24 million in state oil drilling revenue for various projects, including more than $1 million to purchase Hopetown, an old movie stunt ranch now owned by entertainer Bob Hope, for a park; $300,000 to renovate Los Angeles City Hall, and $500,000 to reconstruct a pool in Bellflower.

- Vetoed the “parental leave” bill, by Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles), which would have required businesses with more than 25 employees to allow workers four months of unpaid leave to care for newborns or for a sick or newly adopted child. The bill was strongly opposed by the California Chamber of Commerce.

- Signed three bills in response to the AIDS epidemic. One, by Sen. John Doolittle (R-Rocklin), allows individuals to donate blood to recipients of their choice. Another, by Assemblyman William J. Filante (R-Greenbrae), allows doctors to order AIDS tests of adults who are deemed not competent to give their consent.

The third, by Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles) will quadruple the number of test sites where individuals can receive an anonymous free or low-cost blood test for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Up to 146 new test centers could be opened under the bill, primarily on college and university campuses.

- Vetoed a bill by Assembly Speaker Brown that would have required automobile companies to install larger gasoline vapor recovery canisters in cars sold in California. Auto manufacturers opposed the requirement, arguing that it would not necessarily improve air quality and that it would needlessly drive up the cost of vehicles sold in the state.

In his veto message, Deukmejian said he wanted the Air Resources Board, not the Legislature, to decide how California can best fight smog from automobiles. Deukmejian also indicated that he believed the bill was in part intended to give small convenience stores in other states an example to cite in arguing against regulations requiring the installation of the large rubber nozzles familiar on gas pumps in California’s urban areas.

Supporters of vetoed plan to overhaul L.A. County transportation agencies vow to try again. Part II, Page 1.