Repeal outdated damage cap
We got rid of our king in 1776, but the American people still suffer from the notion that he could do no wrong and could not be sued. “Sovereign immunity,” a legal fiction as outdated as the divine right of royalty, explains the harsh warning that the families of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have been hearing from the Broward School District’s insurance company.
Despite the massive casualties in the Valentine’s Day massacre, state law limits the district’s total liability to $300,000 . ... Juries might award greater damages, but the families would have to lobby the Legislature to get it.
Whether the school system is to blame to any extent is a legal question for the courts to answer. The ridiculous limit on damages, though, is an outrage for the Legislature to set right — now . ...
Sovereign immunity is nowhere mentioned in the Florida Constitution. It comes from long-ago judicial opinions that the immunity of kings carried over to our republic . ...
However, Congress waived sovereign immunity on the federal government’s part in a series of laws culminating in the Tort Claims Act of 1946. And for one brief, enlightened year, Florida waived it, too . ...
The waiver was replaced by the present law, which consents to lawsuits against the state and its political subdivisions, but limits awards to $200,000 per person or $300,000 per occurrence. Claimants may sue for more and juries often award larger damages. But any amount over the ceiling requires a claims bill passed by both houses and signed by the governor. Dozens are introduced every year. Few pass. This year, only four did . ...
It took 13 years for the parents of Devaughn Darling to receive a $2 million settlement from Florida State University for the death of their son, who had sickle cell anemia and died during an intensive football practice in 2001. Until last year, the Legislature was indifferent to the claim, despite the university’s support for it.
Another recent claims-bill outrage involves Wendy Berger, the Florida appellate judge recently nominated by President Trump to be a federal district judge . ... A jury had awarded $10 million to the parents of Ereck Plancher, a 19-year-old football player at the University of Central Florida, who died during a rigorous conditioning drill in 2008. He had tested positive for sickle cell and there was testimony that some coaches and trainers knew it . ... The verdict went against UCF and its Athletic Association, a voluntary support organization that ran the program for the school and claimed the benefit of its sovereign immunity.
When the case reached a three-judge panel at Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal, the court cut the award to $200,000. Berger ... wanted to overturn the verdict entirely on the premise of a liability waiver the boy had signed.
On appeal, the Florida Supreme Court in May 2015 restored the original verdict, but limited the required payout to $200,000. For anything more, it said, “the Planchers must look to the Legislature.” In a troublesome footnote, the court said sovereign immunity would apply as well to the association’s $10-million insurance policy...
The insurance company ... reportedly reached a confidential settlement with the Planchers. It took them nearly a decade after Ereck’s death to get it.
In the wake of the Parkland tragedy, there are already $8.2 million in contributions that the Broward Education Foundation can distribute to victims. But that hardly seems sufficient for so much injury and loss. Rather than put the families through years of costly and emotionally draining litigation and lobbying, the Legislature should see to adequate compensation — now.
And repeal sovereign immunity as well.
A legal anachronism limits damages victims can recover from government entities.
The Florida Legislature should follow Congress in repealing sovereign immunity.