Claims bill clearing $1.2M payment to Pasco man maimed in school bus crash advances to House floor

Image via AP.

Florida lawmakers are closer than they’ve ever been to helping a man who suffered life-altering injuries in a devastating crash nearly two decades ago.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously for HB 6507, which would authorize Pasco County Schools to pay $1 million to Marcus Button and $200,000 to his mother, Robin Button, for pain, suffering, costs and lost wages due to a 2006 collision with a school bus.

The bill is now heading to the House floor. So far, it hasn’t received a single “no” vote in the chamber.

Meanwhile, the bill’s Senate twin (SB 8) has cleared two of three committee stops. That’s further than any prior version of the measure has gotten since former Sen. Mike Fasano filed the original legislation in 2010.

HB 6507 and SB 8 are claims bills, a special classification of legislation intended to compensate a person or entity for injury or loss due to the negligence or error of a public officer or agency.

Claims bills arise when appropriate damages exceed what is allowable under Florida’s sovereign immunity law, which protects government agencies from costly lawsuits by capping payouts — today — at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident. For payments beyond those sums, legislative action is necessary.

Marcus Button was 16 on Sept. 22, 2006, when his friend was driving him to their high school. A school bus driver pulled out in front of Jessica Juettner’s car on State Road 54. It was later determined that bus driver John E. Kinne, whose only other passenger was a backup driver, failed to yield the right-of-way.

The car struck the bus between its wheels, slipping under the larger vehicle. Button, who was riding in the front seat and allegedly not wearing a seatbelt, struck the windshield headfirst, sustaining facial and skull fractures, brain damage and vision loss.

Button had to relearn to walk, still suffers from pain, is mostly blind in his right eye and has no sense of smell, among other chronic issues. He also now speaks with a British accent due to foreign accent syndrome, a speech disorder associated with traumatic brain injury. He also endures visual and auditory hallucinations that contribute to chronic paranoia.

Button’s parents sued the Pasco County School Board in 2007 and ultimately won a $1.38 million settlement for Button and $289,000 for themselves. But Button and his mother have seen just $163,000 due to Florida’s statutory limits.

For the past two years, Tallahassee Sen. Corey Simon and Pensacola Rep. Alex Andrade, both Republicans, have been sponsoring Button’s claims bill. They were the first to take up the cause since 2020, when former Senate Democratic Leader Audrey Gibson filed a comparable measure with no House companion.

It died without a hearing, as did prior efforts by former Republican Sen. Miguel Díaz de la Portilla in 2012 and 2013, and former Republican Sen. Denise Grimsley in 2014, 2015 and 2017.

The Pasco County School Board supports Simon and Andrade’s legislation.