Bill links lawsuit limits, homestead exemption

CARSON CITY -- Legislators might have found a way to checkmate Gov. Jim Gibbons' veto of a bill that would have doubled the amount of damages people could recover in lawsuits filed against state and local governments.

While Gibbons was vetoing Senate Bill 266 on Wednesday, a bill that would accomplish the same thing was sitting on his desk waiting for his signature.

That bill, Assembly Bill 483, is one Gibbons dearly wants to sign, since it also calls for a $100,000 increase in the homestead exemption, a goal that the governor announced in his State of the State address in January. The bill was passed unanimously in both houses of the Legislature.

"There is a lot of strategizing going on here," said Sen. Terry Care, who added the lawsuit provisions to AB483. "There are a lot of people here who know how to play chess."

Melissa Subbotin, Gibbons' press secretary, said Thursday the governor is reviewing his options. But he must decide by today to veto or sign the bill, or it will go into effect without his signature.

Gibbons vetoed SB266, which would have required governments to pay as much as $100,000 to settle civil lawsuits filed against them and their employees. The cap now is $50,000.

"Senate Bill 266 is too much, too soon," Gibbons said.

He told Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, in a veto message that "some type of increase is undoubtedly appropriate. Increasing the tort cap by 100 percent is unnecessarily burdensome and fiscally harmful to government entities."

Local governments contended the higher limit would cost them $2.5 million in litigation costs over the next two years.

But AB483 contains the same provision, also with clauses that increase the homestead exemption, now $350,000, to $450,000.

Nevadans can file homestead declarations for $14 with their county recorder's office and protect their homes from being taken by creditors, legal judgments and bankruptcies.

The $450,000 would be the maximum amount of their equity in a home that would be protected.

Care said the amount of money people can recover in lawsuits against governments has not increased since 1979. Because of inflation, he said, the $50,000 limit set then would be equal to $138,000 today.

If legislators don't act now to increase the limit, "it isn't going to be changed for a long time," Care said. "I read the governor's veto message. I understand it, but I don't agree with it."