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Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA STATUTES ANNOTATED
TITLE 76. TORTS
LIVESTOCK ACTIVITIES LIABILITY LIMITATION ACTCHAPTER
§ 50.1. Short title--Legislative intent--Construction
A. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Oklahoma
Livestock Activities Liability Limitation Act".
B. 1. The Oklahoma Legislature recognizes that persons who
engage in livestock activities may incur injuries as a result
of the risks involved in such activities even in the absence
of any fault or negligence on the part of persons or entities
who sponsor, participate or organize those activities.
2. The Oklahoma Legislature finds that the state and its citizens
derive numerous economic and personal benefits from livestock
activities.
3. It is, therefore, the intent of the Oklahoma Legislature
to encourage livestock activities by limiting the civil liability
of livestock activities sponsors, participants and livestock
professionals involved in such activities.
C. The provisions of the Oklahoma Livestock Activities Liability
Limitation Act shall not be construed to conflict or amend
Sections 10 through 15.1 of Title 76 of the Oklahoma Statutes.
Oklahoma Statutes Citationized
Title 76. Torts
Oklahoma Livestock Activities Liability Limitation Act
§ 50.2 . Term Defined.
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Cite as: 76 O.S. § 50.2 (OSCN 2001), Oklahoma Livestock
Activities Liability Limitation Act
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As used in the Oklahoma Livestock Activities Liability Limitation
Act:
1. "Engages in a livestock activity" includes training,
racing, showing, riding, or assisting in medical treatment
of, or driving livestock, and any person assisting a participant,
livestock activity sponsor or livestock professional. The
term "engages in a livestock activity" does not
include being a spectator at a livestock activity, except
in cases where the spectator places himself or herself in
immediate proximity to livestock activity;
2. "Livestock" means any cattle, bison, hog, sheep,
goat, equine livestock, including but not limited to animals
of the families bovidae, cervidae and antilocapridae or
birds of the ratite group;
3. "Livestock activity" includes but is not limited
to:
a. livestock shows, fairs, livestock sales, competitions, performances,
or parades that involve any or all breeds of livestock and
any of the livestock disciplines, including, but not limited
to, rodeos, auctions, driving, pulling, judging, cutting
and showing,
b. livestock training or teaching activities or both such
training and teaching activities,
c. boarding or pasturing livestock,
d. inspecting or evaluating livestock belonging to another,
whether or not the owner has received some monetary consideration
or other thing of value for the use of the livestock or
is permitting a prospective purchaser of the livestock to
inspect or evaluate the livestock,
e. drives, rides, trips, hunts or other livestock activities
of any type however informal or impromptu that are sponsored
by a livestock activity sponsor, and
f. placing or replacing horseshoes on an equine, or otherwise
preparing livestock for show;
4. "Livestock activity sponsor" means an individual,
group, club, partnership or corporation, whether or not
the sponsor is operating for profit or nonprofit, which
sponsors, organizes, or provides the facilities for, a livestock
activity, including but not limited to: livestock clubs,
4-H clubs, FFA chapters, school and college-sponsored classes,
programs and activities, therapeutic riding programs, and
operators, instructors, and promoters of livestock facilities,
including, but not limited to, barns, stables, clubhouses,
ponyride strings, fairs and arenas at which the activity
is held;
5. "Livestock professional" means a person engaged
for compensation in:
a. instructing a participant or renting to a participant livestock
for the purpose of engaging in livestock activity, or
b. renting equipment or tack to a participant;
6. "Inherent risks of livestock activities" means
those dangers or conditions which are an integral part of
livestock activities, including but not limited to:
a. the propensity of livestock to behave in ways that may result
in injury to persons on or around them,
b. the unpredictability of livestock's reaction to such
things as sounds, sudden movement and unfamiliar objects,
persons or other animals,
c. certain hazards such as surface and subsurface conditions
unknown to the livestock activity sponsor,
d. collisions with other livestock or objects, and
e. the potential of tack to become dislodged or move in
ways that may result in injury to persons on or around livestock
activities; and
7. "Participant" means any person, whether amateur
or professional, who engages in a livestock activity, whether
or not a fee is paid to participate in the livestock activity.
Historical Data
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Added by Laws 1999, c. 326, § 2, eff. Nov. 1, 1999.
§ 50.3. Scope of liability
A. Except as provided in subsection B of this section, a
livestock activity sponsor, a participant or a livestock
professional acting in good faith and pursuant to the standards
of the livestock industry shall not be liable for injuries
to any person engaged in livestock activities when such
injuries result from the inherent risks of livestock activities.
B. 1. The provisions of the Oklahoma Livestock Activities
Liability Limitation Act shall not apply to employees of
the sponsor or livestock professional in the performance
of their duties who are covered by or subject to the provisions
of the workers' compensation laws of Title 85 of the Oklahoma
Statutes.
2. Nothing in subsection A of this section shall prevent
or limit the liability of a livestock activity sponsor,
a participant or a livestock professional, if the livestock
activity sponsor, a participant or livestock professional:
a. commits an act or omission that constitutes willful or
wanton disregard for the safety of any person engaged in
livestock activities, and that act or omission caused the
injury,
b. intentionally injures a person engaged in livestock activities,
c. provided the equipment or tack, which was faulty, and
such equipment or tack was faulty to the extent that it
did cause the injury. The provisions of this subparagraph
shall not apply to livestock activities sponsored by youth
organizations when youth participants share equipment or
tack between themselves,
d. provided the livestock and failed to make a reasonable
effort to determine the ability of the participant to manage
the particular livestock based upon the participant's representations
of such participant's ability. Provided, however, a participant
in a livestock show, livestock sale, or rodeo shall be presumed
to be competent in the handling of livestock if an entry
form is required for the activity and signed by the participant,
or
e. owns, leases, rents or otherwise is in lawful possession
and control of the land or facilities upon which the participant
sustained injuries because of a dangerous condition which
was known to the livestock activity sponsor, livestock professional
or person and not made known to the participant.
3. Nothing in subsection A of this section shall prevent
or limit the liability of a livestock activity sponsor,
a participant or a livestock professional:
a. under liability provisions as set forth in the products
liability laws, or
b. for livestock activities which result in the death of
any person engaged in livestock activities from the inherent
risks of livestock activities.
C. A sponsor shall not be held vicariously liable for the
acts or omission of a participant or a livestock professional.
§ 50.4. Waiver of liability
Two or more persons may agree, in writing, to extend the
waiver of liability pursuant to the provisions of the Oklahoma
Livestock Activities Liability Limitation Act. Such waiver
shall be valid and binding by its terms.
Enacted in 1999.
Reviewed by AAHS in April 2001.
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