Ryan Ray
A Senate budget panel advanced a bill Wednesday for a grant to the family of a Florida State University football player who died on the practice field.
The bill – SB 16 by Sen. Arthenia Joyner – appropriates $1.8 million to the family of Devaughn Darling, who died during preseason drills from complications of an undiagnosed health problem in 2001.
Awarded $2 million by a jury in 2005, Darling’s family received just $200,000 of that sum. The legal doctrine of sovereign immunity, which shields governments from civil liability, prevents the rest of the settlement from being paid out without approval from the Legislature under Florida law.
An initial claims bill originally was filed on behalf of Darling’s family in 2005 but has since fallen short of the necessary support to pass both chambers. In 2009, a Special Master on such claims recommended the bill be favorably, and has since reaffirmed that finding.
“It’s a great thing for us to give the Darlings the closure they so desperately need after having pursued this matter for 14 or more years,” Joyner said in closing on her bill. “I implore you to take an affirmative action to do that because some things do need to come to finality.
The bill passed the Senate Education Appropriations Committee on a unanimous 6-0 vote. Republican Sen. Kelli Stargel – who cast a lone vote against the bill in the Judiciary Committee and sits on Education Appropriations – was absent.
The measure now moves on to the full Appropriations panel. A House companion bill by Rep. Mia Jones has so far not been taken up in committee.
