Parkland case goes to Florida high court

Justices to decide if a mass shooting is more than one horrific event

Nikolas Cruz fired his weapon 140 times at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He murdered 17 people and wounded 17 more. He traumatized everyone who heard the gunshots, who saw the blood-soaked hallways and stepped past the bodies of their friends and classmates on their way to safety.

Now, the state’s highest court is being asked to answer a question that will have an effect on every person who survived the Parkland school shooting last Valentine’s Day: Must government agencies

recognize that a mass shooting is more than just one devastating event, exposing them to more financial liability?

The Fourth District Court of Appeal sent the matter to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, calling it a question of “great public importance.”

“This issue may continue to arise in the context of mass shootings and other mass injury events,” the court said. “Unfortunately, our state has experienced a number of high-profile mass shootings in the past several years, some of which have led to negligence complaints against state agencies.”

The answer could determine how much is available to the dozens of plaintiffs who have indicated they will sue the Broward Sheriff’s Office and the School Board for negligence in the Parkland massacre. Insurance companies say it’s one incident, capping the state’s total liability at $300,000 to be divided among all the victims — less than $9,000 each for everyone who was pierced by a bullet from Cruz’s AR-15 style rifle.

That figure excludes students who watched their friends die, barricaded themselves in classrooms and wondered if they would ever see home again.

“I can’t fathom that’s what the Legislature intended when they created these caps,” said David Brill, attorney for Andrew Pollack, whose daughter, Meadow, was murdered at Stoneman Douglas.

The school district and the Sheriff ’s Office each received nearly 80 notices of intent to sue from attorneys representing various victims, including those who did not suffer physical injury.

In a ruling on a separate case, the Fourth District Court of Appeal on Wednesday asked the Florida Supreme Court to determine whether mass shootings should be treated as one incident or multiple events.

If each shooting is treated separately, each victim would be entitled to a maximum of $200,000. An insurer for an agency would pay the initial statutory amount.

Any amount above that would have to be approved by the state Legislature, and who would pay the extra money is a matter to be settled between the state and the insurance company for the agency.

So far only one victim, survivor Anthony Borges, has filed a lawsuit against the school district and the Sheriff’s Office, though more are coming.

“The Supreme Court’s decision on this will ultimately allow all of us to resolve these actions more quickly,” said Borges’ lawyer, Alex Arreaza, who predicted many cases will end with plaintiffs asking for money from the Legislature. But some might be content with the $200,000 cap per victim, he said.

The appeals court’s latest ruling came Wednesday in a case involving the Florida Department of Children and Families after Palm Beach County resident Patrick Dell in 2010 fatally shot four of his stepchildren and injured one. Dell also killed his wife, Natasha, and fatally shot himself.

The fathers of the children filed lawsuits alleging negligence by the Department of Children and Families, which had investigated an incident in 2009 in which Patrick Dell was alleged to have threatened his wife with a knife and made threats to the entire family.

The request to the Supreme Court involves what the Department of Children and Families’ potential liability could be under the state’s sovereignimmunity law, which is designed to shield government agencies from large judgments.

A Palm Beach County circuit judge ruled that each claim would be eligible for as much as $200,000, but the appeals court in October overturned that decision. Then it asked for the Supreme Court to weigh in.