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DELEGATE SCANLAN: I do, Mr. Chair-
man.
THE CHAIRMAN: Pages will please dis-
tribute amendment Q. This will be Amend-
ment No. 9.
The Clerk will read the amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 9
to Committee Recommendation R&P-2 by
Delegate Scanlan: On page 3, section 7,
Right to Sue State Local Governments,
strike out all of lines 1 through 9, inclusive.
THE CHAIRMAN: The amendment has
been submitted by Delegate Scanlan, is
there a second?
(The amendment was duly seconded.)
THE CHAIRMAN: The amendment is
seconded by Delegate Bennett.
For what purpose does Delegate Kiefer
rise ?
DELEGATE KIEFER: Mr. Chairman, I
will argue against this, but I believe it
would be helpful to the Committee if they
would also have before them while this dis-
cussion is going on my Amendment D.
T.HE CHAIRMAN: Very well.
The chief page will please distribute
Amendment D.
The Amendment No. 9 has been distri-
buted.
The Chair recognizes Delegate Scanlan to
speak to the amendment.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: Mr. Chairman
and fellow delegates, once again I arise to
oppose insertion in the constitution of a
provision that is meaningless at best and
reckless at worst.
I read section 7 several times. Reading it
one way I concluded that it does not change
the present status of the law under which
the General Assembly has full power to
relax the doctrine of sovereign immunity in
those areas where, in its judgment, the
doctrine should be relaxed.
On the other hand, reading it again, I
concluded that the proposition contained in
section 7 would lay open not only the State
but all the political subdivisions of this
State including the smallest municipality
to the danger of being sued for damages
because of the torts committed by agents
of the municipality in the performance of
their duties.
There is another area where, again, this
doctrine would carry us far from existing
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law. At the present time when an officer
of the State abuses his authority or acts
in a manner which a citizen regards as
illegal, he does not sue the State. He sues
the officer for breach of his authority. Un-
der this provision, I believe, it would be
perfectly logical to argue that the State
would equally be a defendant.
The point is that the whole matter dealt
with in section 7 is a statutory concept. The
federal government has taken the lead in
relaxations of sovereign immunity and many
of you have probably heard of the federal
Tort Claims Act in which that immunity is
relaxed. But in the same act, there are care-
fully reserved exceptions.
This cannot be dealt with in a constitu-
tional clause. It has to be dealt with in a
fairly detailed statute. I do not see how in
writing the Constitution we can write a
tort claims act into it. It is unnecessary. I
wish Judge Henderson were here. He spoke
to this point yesterday, I believe. The Gen-
eral Assembly has already acted in this
area and can continue to act in this area.
I see no reason time after time to attempt
to put into this constitution grants of
power which the General Assembly already
has, or provisions designed to goad the
General Assembly to take action it has al-
ready taken.
There is absolutely no necessity for sec-
tion 7 and in Delegate Kiefer's substitute,
all he does is reverse the words. But he
comes out the same place and as far as I
see it, restates the law as it now stands,
namely that the General Assembly has full,
complete unlimited power to relax the doc-
trine of sovereign immunity. T,he legislature
is proceeding in that direction, will pro-
ceed in that direction, and therefore section
7 is completely unnecessary.
Let us not clutter up the constitution with
unnecessary language.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Kiefer.
DELEGATE KIEFER: Mr. Chairman and
ladies and gentlemen of the Committee, I
rise to oppose this amendment, which would
strike any reference completely to sovereign
immunity.
This is a matter that is not in the Decla-
ration of Rights and we do not intend it to
be there. T.his is part of what we had en-
visioned as I explained to you earlier, name-
ly a statement of various principles con-
cerning the government and how it operates.
One of these concepts, and it has been
stated in many other state constitutions,
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