Senate advances bill to limit contractor liability on MoDOT projects

Senate leaders on the floor took up Senate Bill 916 on measures aimed at aligning contractor liability with control on Missouri Department of Transportation projects, with the sponsor saying the bill is a targeted correction to prevent contractors who follow MoDOT-approved plans from being dragged into lengthy lawsuits.

Senator from Scott, the bill sponsor, told colleagues that contractors "are still routinely pulled into litigation for conditions they didn't create and couldn't change," and described the bill as a way to "align responsibility with control" while preserving accountability for negligence. The sponsor used a historical crash investigation to illustrate how litigation can stretch for years and erase evidence, saying the measure "does not create blanket immunity and does not excuse negligence."

Supporters said the bill would reduce unnecessary litigation costs and help protect state tax dollars by shielding compliant contractors from claims tied to factors outside their control. Senator from Boone offered a floor amendment that the sponsor accepted; that amendment removed the middle "during-construction" statutory cause of action, clarified the endpoints of liability (beginning and end of a project), corrected a drafting discrepancy that changed a 30-calendar-day reference to 20 business days (to match 30 calendar days), and removed newly added CPI calculation lines. Senator from Boone said the changes were intended to restore fairness and keep intact existing protections where warranted.

Opponents warned the revisions could shift costs to taxpayers. The senator from the twentieth argued that restoring common-law causes and deleting some statutory limits "ultimately means the taxpayer since that's who ends up paying this," and said the change risks exposing the state to higher awards. The sponsor and amendment author said their intent was not to expand immunity but to clarify when and how liability attaches so contractors are not unfairly penalized for incidents that occurred outside their control.

After extended questioning and debate on definitions and comparative-fault mechanics, the chamber adopted Senate Amendment 1 by voice vote. Senator from Scott then moved to declare the senate substitute perfected and ordered it printed; the motion carried on the floor. No recorded detailed roll-call vote was taken on perfection on the floor transcript; actions were taken by voice votes and the substitute was perfected and printed for the record.

The bill sponsor said the next steps are the printed perfected substitute and any further procedural steps required before final passage; the Senate did not record a final third-reading passage of SB 916 in the provided transcript.

Ending: The Senate perfected the substitute for SB 916 and ordered it printed after adopting the amendment; further procedural steps are expected before a final passage vote.