Gov. Newsom seen as only hope of gas station owners for protection from COVID-19 suits

Now more than ever, California’s businesses have stepped up to the plate to help keep our state moving with the goods and services we need. But as this pandemic continues, they face a looming and devastating threat for their efforts — predatory COVID-19 litigation.

This is why Assembly members James Ramos and Chad Mayes authored a bipartisan bill, AB 1035, that would have granted legal protections to small businesses and employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, when it came time for the bill to be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee, it was dead on arrival. The Senate committee decided not to take up the bill that offered promise and hope to California’s small business owners struggling to survive.

Now, as the state operates with no protections to business owners, who are risking their lives and the lives of their employees to stay open and provide essential services, I only wish the senators who rejected the bill knew just how hard it is to run a business in California.

Our last hope is with Gov. Gavin Newsom. His company, PlumpJack Group, owns more than 23 businesses in California, including wineries, restaurants and retail stores. He’s even spoken about the abusive Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit he had to face. Somehow, I feel he knows our pain. It’s clear that businesses all across the state are trying their best to hang in there — to keep their doors open, provide jobs for their workers, serve their customers and feed their families.

So, governor, we — the business community — ask you to step up in this way: Ask the Legislature to send a bill for your signature that grants legal protections to essential businesses that have answered the call and remained open during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide groceries, medicine, medical and hardware supplies, transportation, and other services. They’ve stayed open so that Californians can have what they need during the safer-at-home directive.

We ask for you to work in partnership with the Legislature to enact real protections for us. With your leadership and support, the Legislature is more likely to advance AB 1035 or other like-minded legislation.

It must be noted that businesses that took the initiative and completely retooled their manufacturing or assembly processes to create masks, disinfectants, and gowns to help Californians access personal protection equipment, also need to be protected from abusive litigation.

This is a moderate and narrow ask. Under the Emergency Services Act, California already protects a small group of private entities that assist during times of crisis from civil liability, unless they commit gross negligence or willful misconduct. However, going forward, all essential businesses deserve this same protection.

Without your help, we can only count the days until we realize the potential threat of unwarranted lawsuits stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. California is well known for its plaintiff friendly court system that puts California businesses at greater risk of lawsuit abuse.

Simply stated, Gov. Newsom, without your help the potential threat of unwarranted lawsuits stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic will wipe us out. And the promise and hope that we have had to build and sustain our livelihoods during and after this pandemic, will be dead on arrival.