§ 84.001.Name of Act

A short title provision, and the name states the chapter’s two halves.

This Act may be cited as the Charitable Immunity and Liability Act of 1987.

"Immunity" and "liability" both appear, and both are accurate. The chapter protects volunteers, employees, and organizations in defined circumstances — and by defining those circumstances it also fixes where liability remains.

The protections are not uniform. A volunteer is immune from civil liability for an act within the course and scope of their duties, subject to exceptions. An employee is protected to the extent an employee of a governmental unit would be. An organization gets a damages cap rather than immunity — $500,000 for each person and $1 million for each occurrence for bodily injury or death, and $100,000 for each occurrence for injury to or destruction of property.

Every one of those protections is conditional on insurance. The applicability provision requires the organization to carry liability coverage in the statutory amounts, and an organization without it is outside the chapter — which is the recurring insurance-for-protection bargain that appears throughout this part of the code.

The 1987 date matters historically. The chapter was enacted during a period of sharply rising liability insurance costs, and the findings provision records that volunteers were withdrawing from service over fears of personal exposure.

The Act is cited by name constantly — in nonprofit bylaws, insurance policies, volunteer waivers, and board materials — which is what a short title provision is for.