Brief(1)
S.B. 87 amends two sections of the Kansas Code of Civil Procedure dealing with pleadings which demand damages. Current law requires that when damages are sought in an amount over $75,000, that the exact amount cannot be stated but rather a statement must be included that damages are sought in excess of $75,000. The amendment would strike the $75,000 amount and cite the Federal Code of Civil Procedure Section 928 U.S.C. �1332 which provides the dollar threshold for bringing a diversity action in federal court.
Background
The Kansas Judicial Council requested the change to K.S.A. 60-208(a) and 60-209(g) and to Kansas Supreme Court Rule 118(a). The purpose for the change is to obviate the need for recurrent amendments as the statutory amount in controversy for federal court diversity jurisdiction changes. By referring specifically to the federal diversity statute, rather than to a specific amount in controversy, it will be unnecessary to change this statute and this rule each time the federal jurisdictional amount changes.
The required amount in controversy for federal court diversity of citizenship jurisdiction is set forth in the federal statute, 28 U.S.C. �1332. Over the past 40 years, that amount has changed several times. That history is outlined as follows: 1948, $3,000; 1958, $10,000; 1988, $50,000; and 1996, $75,000.
The Kansas pleading statute, K.S.A. 60-208, was amended to require that petitions seeking damages no longer pray for a specific amount. The purpose of this amendment was to preclude unnecessary publicity surrounding the filing of "multi-million dollar" lawsuits, until there was some showing that the case warranted such a prayer. However, while deleting reference to specific amounts in controversy, the statute also accommodated the need to determine whether the state court petition might be removable to the United States District Court. Therefore, while deleting reference to a specific amount in controversy, K.S.A. 60-208(a) also required a statement whether the amount in controversy exceeded the then-current federal diversity amount in controversy. If the amount sought is less than that stated amount, then a prayer for a specific amount of monetary relief could be stated.
Since the initial adoption of this aspect of K.S.A. 60-208(a), it has been necessary to amend the amount stated in that statute in K.S.A. 60-209(a) and in Rule 118(a) to accommodate increases in the federal diversity jurisdictional amount. However, there has been a delay between the adoption of the federal statutory change and the resulting change in the Kansas rules--sometimes as long as a year.
The bill has no fiscal impact.
1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/bill_search.html.