This week the Senate will be voting on the following three bills of importance to Connecticut agriculture. These bills have already passed in the House. Please call or e-mail your state Senators NOW and ask them to vote in favor of these bills: HB 5044 AN ACT CONCERNING THE LIABILITY OF OWNERS AND KEEPERS OF DOMESTICATED HORSES, PONIES, DONKEYS AND MULES. This bill reduces exposure to liability for the owner or keeper of a horse, pony, donkey, or mule in any civil action seeking to recover personal injury damages caused by the animal. A recent Connecticut appellate decision classified horses as an inherently dangerous species with vicious propensities because they possess a natural propensity to bite. The bill creates a presumption in any civil action brought against the owner or keeper of a horse, pony, donkey, or mule that the animal (1) is domesticated, (2) is not inherently dangerous, and (3) does not possess a vicious propensity. This classification is rebuttable with evidence that the animal was not raised or kept by a person (presumably this refers to a wild animal kept in captivity). The bill also sets a higher evidentiary standard to establish that an individual animal had unusual dangerous tendencies. It declares evidence that the animal caused an injury in the past to be insufficient to impose the particular duty of care that applies to an animal with unusual dangerous tendencies. HB 5057 AN ACT CONCERNING THE ASSESSMENT OF HORSES AND PONIES AND FARM MACHINERY AND THE TRANSFER OF LAND CLASSIFIED AS FARM LAND, OPEN SPACE LAND, FOREST LAND AND MARINE HERITAGE LAND. The purpose of this bill is to authorize municipalities, by local option, to exempt all horses and ponies from property taxation and provide technical fixes to PA 490 which will help clarify grey areas in the statutes. One of the technical fixes is to clarify that the ten year penalty phase for the conveyance tax does not restart on excepted transfers. HB 5419 AN ACT CONCERNING THE PRESERVATION OF THE SAVIN FARM IN LEBANON. CFBA supports this bill as it protects the state owned Savin Farm
Posted on: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 17:35:27 +0000
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