BILL NUMBER: SB 1188	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  APRIL 9, 2014

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Jackson

                        FEBRUARY 20, 2014

   An act to add Section 1762 to the Civil Code, relating to consumer
affairs.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 1188, as amended, Jackson. Consumers Legal Remedies Act: facts.

   Existing law, the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, makes unlawful
certain acts identified as unfair methods of competition and unfair
or deceptive acts or practices undertaken by any person in a
transaction intended to result or which results in the sale or lease
of goods to any consumer. Existing case law had held that act to
encompass omissions, including the omission of a material fact a
person was obliged to disclose.
   This bill, for the purposes of the Consumers Legal Remedies Act,
would provide that  fraud or deceit may consist of the
suppression or omission of a material fact by one who is bound to
disclose it or who gives information of other facts that are likely
to mislead for want of communication of that fact, and would provide
that  a fact is material if a reasonable person would attach
importance to its existence or nonexistence in determining a choice
of action in the transaction in question. This bill would also
provide, for the purposes of the act, that materiality is not limited
to circumstances in which a product poses a threat to health or
safety.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 1762 is added to the Civil Code, to read:
   1762.  For purposes of this title: 
   (a) Fraud or deceit may consist of the suppression or omission of
a material fact by one who is bound to disclose it or who gives
information of other facts that are likely to mislead for want of
communication of that fact.  
   (a) 
    (b)  A fact is material if a reasonable person would
attach importance to its existence or nonexistence in determining a
choice of action in the transaction in question. 
   (b) 
    (c)  Materiality is not limited to circumstances in
which a product poses a threat to health or safety.