After more than a decade of legislative efforts that went ignored, Florida lawmakers finally voted for a bill that would clear $1.5 million to a Pasco County man who suffered life-altering injuries in a gruesome crash 18 years ago.
Every member of the House Civil Justice Committee approved a measure (HB 6017) to provide long-sought relief to Marcus Button and his mother, Robin Button, for pain, suffering and costs incurred in a 2006 collision with a Pasco County school bus.
It marked the first time since former Sen. Mike Fasano first filed legislation on the Buttons' behalf in 2011 that lawmakers officially weighed in on the issue.
The bill is also the first of its type that Pensacola Republican Rep. Alex Andrade sponsored in his six years in the Legislature.
HB 6017 and its Senate companion (SB 18) by Tallahassee Republican Sen. Corey Simon are classified as claims bills or "relief acts," as they are 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 at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident. For payments beyond those sums, legislative action is necessary.
To date, the Buttons have received just $163,000 of a $1.625 million settlement with the Pasco County School Board that a court awarded them in 2009. It would be a windfall for the family, who an economist estimated will spend as much as $10 million on Marcus Button's care, and a source of solace for his mother.
Speaking to the panel Thursday, Robin Button said she worried about who would care for him after she died. Her husband and Marcus's father, Mark Button, passed away a few years ago, she said, and she is the only person left to take care of him.
"And I know Marcus is going to outlive me," she said. "This bill means everything to him and myself, and I'd just like to thank you for supporting this bill please. He just needs your help … so he can show and learn to be more independent for himself after I'm gone. At this point in time, he cannot do that."
Marcus Button was 16 on Sept. 22, 2006, when his friend, Jessica Juettner, was driving him to their high school and a school bus driver pulled out in front of Juettner's car on State Road 54. It was later determined that Kinne, whose only other passenger was a backup driver, failed to yield the right-of-way.
Juettner's car struck the bus between its wheels, slipping under the larger vehicle. While she suffered minor injuries, 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.
After more than two months of inpatient treatment and rehabilitation, Button still faced a long, arduous and still-incomplete road to recovery. He had to relearn how to walk and today can't walk for "any substantial length of time without pain," the bill says. He's also mostly blind in his right eye, has no sense of smell and endures other disabilities when it comes to tasting food and feeling textures.
Further, he 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.
In a 2013 interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Button related how he sometimes saw camels walking beside him and once caressed a dead pet cat named Kiki who rubbed against his leg. The outlet also detailed how his difficulty controlling impulses prevented him from going to crowded places.
Button's parents sued the Pasco County School Board in 2007. A pediatric rehabilitation doctor and neuropsychologist testified that Button would require 24-hour care, counseling, intervention, medical care and pharmaceuticals for the rest of his life to cope with his physical symptoms and control his "psychotic and delusional behavior," the bill says. The doctor noted other issues Button deals with, including memory loss, sleep deprivation and difficulty concentrating.
Jurors split responsibility for the crash and Button's injury among those involved. The six-person panel apportioned 65% of the blame to the Pasco County School Board, 20% to Juettner, who they determined could have avoided the accident if she'd paid more attention while driving, and 15% to Button for allegedly not wearing a seatbelt.
The award to Button and his parents totaled $1.625 million. Left unpaid is about $1.246 million to Button, who is now in his mid-30s, and $261,149 to his parents.
According to Florida law, the Buttons shouldn't get any more money, said lawyer William Spicola, who spoke to lawmakers Thursday on behalf of the Pasco School District.
Among other things, Spicola cited Florida Statute 11.065, which states that claims against the state may not be presented to the Legislature more than four years after the cause of relief accrued.
He clarified that he didn't "really have an opinion on the bill" himself.
Attorney Lance Block, who is representing the Buttons, pointed out that the Legislature has passed "hundreds of claim bills" in which the cause of relief accrued longer than four years before.
"The courts have consistently ruled that it's within the purview of the Legislature and the power of the purse to decide whether to pass a claim bill or not," he said.
Andrade, a lawyer, agreed. The statute Spicola cited, he said, isn't one he's seen enforced.
"I don't believe it is enforceable," he added. "I would appreciate your support on this bill so we can get some relief for the Buttons."
Andrade and Simon are the first legislators to carry a claims bill for the Buttons 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.
HB 6017 is to next go before the House Judiciary Committee, after which it would go to the chamber floor.
SB 18, which Simon filed in August, still awaits consideration by the Senate's Special Master on Claim Bills. The measure would then need to be heard by the Senate Judiciary, Education PreK-12 and Rules committees.
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