Legislation: batch A — AK AL AR AZ CO CT DE GA HI IA ID

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

legislation/us/states/de/151/hb-277.md

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+---
+type: "Bill"
+title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO LIABILITY FOR SEXUAL ABUSE OF A CHILD BY AN ADULT EMPLOYEE OF A SCHOOL, ORGANIZATION, OR BUSINESS."
+description: "This Act codifies the principle set forth in Doe v. Bicking, 2020 Del. Super. LEXIS 43, *32, 2020 WL 374677 (Del. Super. Jan. 22, 2020) that recognizes that in cases of childhood sexual abuse by an employee of a school, organization, or business that serves or cares for children, the perpetrator often has authority and power over the child victim, which can be enabled by the perpetrator’s position in that institution. If a child is abused while the perpetrator is doing the perpetrator’s job, the employer should be responsible."
+jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
+legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
+session: "151"
+identifier: "HB 277"
+citation: "Delaware HB 277 (151)"
+classification: ["bill"]
+subjects: []
+status: "enacted"
+primary_sponsors: ["Brian Pettyjohn", "Melissa Minor-Brown", "Nicole Poore", "Sean M. Lynn", "Sherry Dorsey Walker", "Timothy D. Dukes", "Valerie Longhurst"]
+version_count: 2
+action_count: 9
+vote_count: 2
+first_action: "2022-01-06"
+last_action: "2022-08-19"
+source: "openstates"
+source_identifier: "ocd-bill/37912162-3278-492c-92a2-ea059f93022b"
+source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=79054"
+source_hash: "097a9d121d8ec57c5fa8d0ba7599abf0d0d27f07d2f08f4dbb407463975d3398"
+vintage: "2026-07-01"
+source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
+retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
+confidence: "reported"
+tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
+---
+
+# Delaware HB 277 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO LIABILITY FOR SEXUAL ABUSE OF A CHILD BY AN ADULT EMPLOYEE OF A SCHOOL, ORGANIZATION, OR BUSINESS.
+
+This Act codifies the principle set forth in Doe v. Bicking, 2020 Del. Super. LEXIS 43, *32, 2020 WL 374677 (Del. Super. Jan. 22, 2020) that recognizes that in cases of childhood sexual abuse by an employee of a school, organization, or business that serves or cares for children, the perpetrator often has authority and power over the child victim, which can be enabled by the perpetrator’s position in that institution. If a child is abused while the perpetrator is doing the perpetrator’s job, the employer should be responsible.
+
+## Version chain
+
+The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
+
+1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=79054&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB277)
+2. **HA 1 to HB 277** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=89273&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)
+
+## Votes
+
+- SM — **40–0** (pass) · lower
+- SM — **21–0** (pass) · upper
+
+## Sponsors
+
+- Brian Pettyjohn — primary (person)
+- Melissa Minor-Brown — primary (person)
+- Nicole Poore — primary (person)
+- Sean M. Lynn — primary (person)
+- Sherry Dorsey Walker — primary (person)
+- Timothy D. Dukes — primary (person)
+- Valerie Longhurst — primary (person)
+- Andria L. Bennett — cosponsor (person)
+- Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
+- Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
+- Bryant L. Richardson — cosponsor (person)
+- Colin Bonini — cosponsor (person)
+- Darius J. Brown — cosponsor (person)
+- Dave G. Lawson — cosponsor (person)
+- David L. Wilson — cosponsor (person)
+- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
+- Debra Heffernan — cosponsor (person)
+- Ernesto B. Lopez — cosponsor (person)
+- Gerald W. Hocker — cosponsor (person)
+- John "Jack" Walsh — cosponsor (person)
+- Krista Griffith — cosponsor (person)
+- Kyle Evans Gay — cosponsor (person)
+- Laura V. Sturgeon — cosponsor (person)
+- Marie Pinkney — cosponsor (person)
+- S. Elizabeth Lockman — cosponsor (person)
+- Sarah McBride — cosponsor (person)
+- Sherae'a Moore — cosponsor (person)
+- Spiros Mantzavinos — cosponsor (person)
+- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)
+- Trey Paradee — cosponsor (person)
+
+## Timeline
+
+The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
+
+- **2022-01-06** Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
+- **2022-03-23** Amendment HA 1 to HB 277 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
+- **2022-05-10** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 2 Favorable, 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2022-05-17** Amendment HA 1 to HB 277 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
+- **2022-05-17** Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
+- **2022-05-17** Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
+- **2022-06-08** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in Senate with 5 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
+- **2022-06-23** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
+- **2022-08-19** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
+
+## Source
+
+OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/37912162-3278-492c-92a2-ea059f93022b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).
+