TALLAHASSEE — Florida senators have filed 17 bills seeking payments of as much as $28 million for people who suffered injuries and damages because of actions of state and local government agencies.
The proposals, a certain type of legislation known as “claim” bills, will be considered during the 2025 legislative session. The largest amounts of money are sought because of alleged negligence by the Florida Department of Children and Families that resulted in catastrophic injuries to children, but the bills also involve such things as injuries suffered in traffic accidents.
The bills are needed, at least in part, because of a state sovereign-immunity law that generally limits the amounts of money government agencies can be forced to pay in lawsuits to $200,000 or $300,000, depending on how many people are involved. Claim bills allow payments that are higher than the limits.
The 17 proposals were filed before a Friday deadline for claim bills. Other types of bills for the 2025 session will start to be filed later this year. Here are brief descriptions of the five largest claim bills:
— SB 12, filed by Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, seeks $28 million to help care for a Sarasota child, identified by the initials L.P., who was stabbed 14 times by her mother in 2015.
The bill said the Sarasota Police Department, which had received a call about mental-health issues involving the mother, contacted the Department of Children and Families about possible child abuse. DCF employees went to the home “but failed to identify the mother of L.P., much less identify several forewarnings as to the mother’s mental health status,” the bill said.
Later, the mother tried to murder the 6-year-old child, including trying to disembowel her, the bill said. A lawsuit led to a jury finding DCF negligent in 2022 and awarding $28 million in damages, but the agency could only pay $200,000 without a claim bill.
— SB 2, filed by Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez, R-Homestead, seeks $20 million because of injuries suffered by a Fort Myers child, identified by the initials C.C., who overdosed on his mother’s methadone in 2015.
The bill said the child was born in 2014 addicted to methadone because of his mother’s drug abuse and was hospitalized for a month in a neonatal intensive-care unit. The Department of Children and Families received multiple reports before and after the child’s birth about the mother’s drug use and potential child abuse, the bill said.
In September 2015, when the child was 13 months old, he overdosed on methadone and suffered brain and other injuries that will require “lifelong care,” the bill said. It seeks $20 million because of DCF’s alleged negligence.
— SB 18, filed by Gruters, seeks $14.926 million because of “catastrophic and permanent injuries” suffered in 2017 by a child identified by the initials H.H.
The bill said the Department of Children and Families received reports about issues such as drug use, neglect and abuse by the child’s mother and stepfather. After DCF closed two investigations and received other reports, the girl was hospitalized in September 2017 with head and other injuries and was “determined to be the victim of severe, prolonged, repeated, life-threatening physical abuse that caused permanent damage,” the bill said.
The mother and stepfather were charged with child abuse and other crimes and sentenced to prison, the bill said. The $14.926 million, if approved, would be put in a trust for the child, who was about 22 months old at the time of the abuse. The bill does not say where the abuse occurred.
— SB 28, filed by Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, seeks $6.1 million from the South Broward Hospital District because of injuries suffered at birth by a child identified by the initials J.R.
The bill said the child’s mother, Darline Angervil, went to the district’s Memorial Hospital West in January 2014 when she was about 30 weeks pregnant and suffering complications such as high-blood pressure and headaches. The bill said she was diagnosed with the condition preeclampsia and underwent a cesarean delivery more than two days after being admitted to the hospital.
The baby girl weighed 2 pounds, 5 ounces at birth and suffered extensive injuries that require 24-hour nursing care, the bill said. Angervil filed a lawsuit alleging negligent care and reached a $6.4 million agreement with the district in 2023. The district paid $300,000, but passage of a claim bill would be needed to pay the rest of the money.
— SB 6, filed by Rodriguez, seeks $4.1 million after a settlement stemming from a Miami-Dade County bus hitting pedestrian Jose Correa in December 2021.
The bill said Correa was using a crosswalk at an intersection when a bus driver made a left turn and hit him. Correa suffered injuries that included requiring amputation of a leg below the knee, according to the bill.
Correa filed a lawsuit against the county and reached a $4.3 million settlement, the bill said. Under the sovereign-immunity law, the county paid $200,000 but would need legislative direction to pay the remaining $4.1 million.
