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Title 30 — Mineral Lands and Mining

Chapter 22 — Mine Safety and Health

§ 826. Limitation on certain liability for rescue operations

Statutory text

(a)

In general

No person shall bring an action against any covered individual or his or her regular employer for property damage or an injury (or death) sustained as a result of carrying out activities relating to mine accident rescue or recovery operations. This subsection shall not apply where the action that is alleged to result in the property damages or injury (or death) was the result of gross negligence, reckless conduct, or illegal conduct or, where the regular employer (as such term is used in this chapter) is the operator of the mine at which the rescue activity takes place. Nothing in this section shall be construed to preempt State workers’ compensation laws.

(b)

Covered individual

For purposes of subsection (a), the term “covered individual” means an individual—

(1)

who is a member of a mine rescue team or who is otherwise a volunteer with respect to a mine accident; and

(2)

who is carrying out activities relating to mine accident rescue or recovery operations.

(c)

Regular employer

For purposes of subsection (a), the term “regular employer” means the entity that is the covered employee’s legal or statutory employer pursuant to applicable State law.

Legislative history

Reconstructed from this section’s Code source credit and amendment notes, resolved against the local Statutes at Large. Editorial notes are evidence, not the law that made the change.

  1. Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969

    Pub. L. 91–173 title I § 116 · 83 Stat. 742

    Enacted · 30 U.S.C. § 826

    (Pub. L. 91–173, title I, § 116, as added Pub. L. 109–236, § 3, June 15, 2006, 120 Stat. 496.)

    Source evidence

    Code source credit
    (Pub. L. 91–173, title I, § 116, as added Pub. L. 109–236, § 3, June 15, 2006, 120 Stat. 496.)

0 of 1 references resolved to an enrolled provision · 1 partial

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This chapter, referred to in subsec. (a), was in the original “this Act”, meaning Pub. L. 91–173, , 83 Stat. 742, known as the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, which is classified principally to this chapter. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 801 of this title and Tables.

Credits

(Pub. L. 91–173, title I, § 116, as added Pub. L. 109–236, § 3, , 120 Stat. 496.)

Parsed from the official OLRC USLM XML in data/usc_all/usc30.xml · release point 119-108 · OLRC build 2026-04-17

USLM identifier /us/usc/t30/s826