§ 108.004.Computer Date Failure

A complete immunity rather than a cap, and its subject dates it precisely.

Except in an action arising under the constitution or laws of the United States, a public servant is not personally liable for property damages caused by a computer date failure as the Year 2000 chapter describes it.

Note the difference from the rest of the chapter. The general provisions cap liability at $100,000 and condition the cap on coverage; this removes liability altogether and requires nothing.

No course and scope requirement, no coverage requirement, no ceiling. A public servant is not liable at all.

The provision was enacted alongside the Year 2000 chapter, in the period before 2000 when the consequences of two-digit date fields in older systems were being planned for across every government.

The concern was specific and reasonable at the time. Public systems were old, remediation was expensive, and officials responsible for computers that might fail on a known date faced a foreseeable wave of claims.

The limitation to property damage matters. Personal injury and death from a computer date failure are outside the section and fall under the general cap instead.

The federal exception appears here as it does throughout the chapter, since a state cannot remove liability created by federal law.

The section is now of historical interest rather than practical use, and it remains on the books as a record of what the Legislature was worried about in the late 1990s.