Jesse Scheckner
Legislation to compensate a man for life-altering injuries he sustained in a roadway crash nearly two decades ago is now one vote from passing.
Senators voted unanimously for SB 8, which would authorize Pasco County Schools to pay $1 million to Marcus Button and $200,000 to his mother, Robin Button, for injuries, suffering and lost wages due to a 2006 collision with a school bus.
The bill will now join its twin (HB 6507) on the House floor for a final vote. It’s the closest any legislative attempt to financially assist the Buttons has come to passing since former Sen. Mike Fasano filed the original legislation in 2010.
SB 8 and HB 6507 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.
And Button is well-deserving of the help, said Tallahassee Republican Sen. Corey Simon ahead of his bill’s passage Tuesday. The Pasco County School Board supports the legislation too.
“Experts estimate Marcus’ future care costs between $6 million and $10 million, and lifetime lost wages of $365,000 to $500,000,” Simon said. “The bill seeks to provide fair compensation to Marcus Button’s catastrophic, life-altering injuries and ongoing needs.”
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, Simon and Pensacola Republican Rep. Alex Andrade have sponsored 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. So 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.
