North Palm Beach man dies waiting for Legislature to act on claims bill
After wrongdoing by government, collecting damages may be tough.
NORTH PALM BEACH — David Abbott could be angry. Instead, he says, he’s just numb.
For three years, the North Palm Beach man waited for the Florida Legislature to pass a bill that would give his father the money he needed to recover from catastrophic injuries he suffffered when he was run over by a Palm Beach County school bus in 2008. Even a letter from Carl Abbott’s doctor, warning that the elderly man could die unless he was moved into a nursing home that could provide more effffffffffffective therapy, failed to move the tight- fifisted Legislature.
Abbott’s father died in June at age 73, never getting the
1.9 million the school board agreed to pay for its bus driver’s negligence.
I’m kind of numbed by the whole thing,” Abbott, 50, said
last week. “He was injured to the point where he needed care, and he just fell through the cracks. I wish the state of Florida had a better system to take care of people.” Abbott is not alone. The owner of Tell A Friend Automotive in Riviera Beach, he is one of dozens of people in Palm Beach County and scores throughout the state who have learned that it is difficult, sometimes impossible, to collect damages for horrific injuries caused by government wrongdoing in Florida.
Under the state’s system, even if a jury finds a government is at fault and awards damages — even if a government agency agrees to pay — the most those injured by state or local agencies can collect from the government is $200,000. To get more money, state lawmakers must pass what is known as a claims bill.
And for the previous two years, then Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, refused to allow any claims bills through the upper chamber, meaning none passed the Legislature at all.
This year, with new Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, once again at least allowing claims bills to be heard, the outlook may be brighter for those who say they need far more than $200,000 for devastating injuries or deaths caused by crashes involving government vehicles, bad decisions by state child care workers or medical mistakes at government-run hospitals.
“It’s far better this year than in the last t wo years,” said attorney Lance Block, who specializes in shepherding claims bills through the GOP-controlled Legislature. “I think it’s more likely than not that locally agreed bills will pass and become law. What’s not clear is whether they will take up bills that were agreed to with the state.”
Block’s view, if correct, is good news for Abbott, who is still dealing with an avalanche of bills for his father’s care. Under bills that have cleared both Senate and House subcommittees, he would get $633,333 over three years.
Likewise, such a scenario would help the family of Manuel Antonio Matute. The 60-year-old was killed in 2008 when his car was hit head-on by a Palm Beach County sheriff ’s deputy who lost control of his cruiser on U.S. 441. Like the county school board did in Abbott’s case, the sheriff ’s office agreed to pay the claims bill. Having already paid Matute’s family $128,000, it has agreed to pay an additional $372,000 if the Legislature agrees.
Less clear is what will happen to those who are seeking money for misconduct by state agencies. That includes a former Wellington youth who was sexually assaulted by a predatory foster child whom the Florida Department of Children & Families placed in his family’s home without warning his parents of the youth’s deep-seated psychological ills.
With the Senate and House arguing over $4.2 billion in spending, statehouse watchers worry that people — like the youth, who was awarded $5 million by a Palm Beach County jury in 2013 — will become victims of budget wrangling.
“I’m just hoping he isn’t an unintended victim of the budget scenario,” said attorney Howard Talenfeld, who represents the teen. “This is a window of opportunity to try to save this young man’s life.”
Because DCF has agreed to pay for treatment for the youth, identified only as C.M.H., he stands a better chance than those with cases that government agencies continue to contest.
Altavious Carter, for instance, has yet to persuade Palm Beach Count y school officials to pay him the $1 million a jury in 2010 said he deserves for treatment of a broken neck he suffered when a school bus slammed into the back of a car driven by his basketball coach. Carter, who will soon graduate from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, was a 14-year-old student at Summit Christian School when the 2005 crash occurred.
His attorney, Brian Denney, said he’s optimistic the Legislature will finally pass his claims bill — the fifth time it has been filed. But, others said, without the school board’s consent, the chance for passage is grim.
Attorney Stephan Le- Clainche said he didn’t even file a claims bill to get the $1.7 million a jury awarded the family of a 3-year-old Pahokee girl who was raped on a school bus by a 15-yearold boy in 2007. During the trial, the school district acknowledged the assault occurred but said the girl was too young and mentally challenged to remember it.
“It’s difficult enough when you have an unopposed claims bill, but it puts you way ahead of the game,” LeClainche said of why the bill was put on hold. “I find it a little amazing in a circumstance like this, when a little girl was raped on a bus, to take the position they have taken.”
In a written statement, the school district’s legal team said: “We don’t comment on legal strategy, however as a general rule we do attempt to settle claims in litigation. Unfortunately, it is not always possible for the parties to reach an agreement before trial.”
Attorneys also suspect opposition from DCF sunk a bill that would provide an additional $3.75 million to Victor Barahona, who was found with severe injuries in his adoptive father’s pest control van along Interstate 95 near