Volunteer Organization Protection Act of 2017

Volunteer Organization Protection Act of 2017

This bill amends the Volunteer Protection Act of 1997 to expand liability protections to volunteer nonprofit organizations for harm caused by an act or omission of a volunteer on behalf of the organization.

The bill prohibits such liability protections from applying if the organization: (1) would be liable under laws governing the direct or vicarious liability of organizations, and (2) expressly authorized the specific conduct constituting the act or omission.

The bill bars such an organization from liability for harm caused by the organization, or a volunteer acting on its behalf, if the act or omission was at the request of, or pursuant to an authorization by, a state, the United States, or another governmental subdivision, provided that: (1) the requesting or authorizing governmental entity would have been immune either from suit or from liability in damages if it had engaged in the acts or omissions itself or through employees or independent contractors; or (2) the governmental employee, agent, or contractor would have been immune either from suit or from liability in damages by virtue of immunity extended to individual governmental actors.

The bill prohibits punitive damages from being awarded against a volunteer nonprofit organization for the actions of a volunteer within the scope of the volunteer's responsibilities to the organization unless the claimant establishes by clear and convincing evidence that the organization itself expressly authorized the volunteer's action with a conscious, flagrant indifference to the rights or safety of the individual harmed.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov