Pasco schools ready to settle 15-year-old case of injured student for $1.2M
UPDATE: The school board approved the $1.2 million settlement without comment at its Tuesday meeting. It still requires legislative action.
The family of a former Pasco County student who suffered major injuries in a 2006 school bus crash is on the verge of getting long sought after financial relief.
The Pasco School Board on Tuesday will consider approving a $1.2 million settlement with Robin Button, who has been attempting since 2009 to collect the bulk of a $1.625 million jury award for her son Marcus’ medical expenses, pain, suffering and care.
Marcus Button, now 33, suffered brain damage, partial blindness and several other life-altering ailments in a crash while on the way to Wesley Chapel High School, where he was a student.
The jury found the school bus driver to be at fault.
“I feel certain everybody on the board will do the right thing,” said vice chairperson Alison Crumbley. “I just want to do the right thing for that family.”
To this point, the district has paid $200,000 to the crash victims. That’s the amount set in Florida law as the cap in lawsuit judgments against government entities, unless the Legislature approves a claims bill waiving the cap.
Lawmakers have filed bills supporting the Buttons since 2011, but the measures never got heard.
This year proved different.
The legislation by Rep. Alex Andrade, an influential Pensacola Republican, cleared its first committee stop with a unanimous vote and appears headed for passage. Lawmakers’ ultimate approval of the bill would clear the path for the school district to pay the family.
“Prior to there being an act of the Legislature, even if we wanted to pay, we didn’t have the ability to do so,” said Paul Meeker, the board’s general counsel, who tried the Button case initially. Now that the bill has traction, “we took it upon ourselves to try to pay a reduced settlement.”
The bill allows for $1.25 million in damages plus $261,149 to the family for losses they sustained.
Andrade said he did not know why the bill is moving this year, while it did not in the past. He filed the legislation, he said, because Button was obviously injured badly yet the family was stuck in a “weird situation” owing to sovereign immunity laws.
“If they were harmed by anybody else (they) would absolutely have been compensated by now,” Andrade said. “I’m excited to see the school board taking it up.”
Lance Block is an attorney helping the Button family steer the claims bill through the Legislature. He gave credit to Andrade for overcoming whatever political barricades had halted efforts to help the Buttons in the past.
In recent press releases regarding the measure, Block accused the district of playing “political games behind the scenes” to bottle up the bills. He also stated the school board opposed the bill for 13 years.
Crumbley, who has been on the board since 2010, said she was surprised the issue was still lingering, and added that the board had not been asked its position on it that she could recall.
Block said he was glad that the Buttons could finally see “what little justice there was in this case.”
He noted that the jury verdict has accrued no interest, and the cost associated with Marcus’ care far exceeds the award amount.
“We’re grateful to the school board and superintendent for taking this step,” he said.
Even after the board would accept the settlement, he said, the Legislature still must approve the claims bill, and the governor must sign it for the payments to take effect. Andrade said he planned to see the measure through to the end.
“It’s just something I believe in,” he said.
