Senate Bill sb0010

    Florida Senate - 2001        (NP)                        SB 10

    By Senator Dyer





    14-19-01

  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to Orange County; providing for

  3         the relief of Maria Garcia, as legal guardian

  4         of Delfina Benjumea, for injuries and damages

  5         sustained by Ms. Benjumea as a result of the

  6         negligence of the Orange County Sheriff's

  7         Office; providing for a reversionary interest

  8         to the Orange County Sheriff's Office;

  9         providing legislative intent with respect to

10         expenditures; providing an effective date.

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12         WHEREAS, on July 11, 1996, Delfina Benjumea, an

13  82-year-old woman, had come to the Orlando area from Colombia

14  to visit her family, and

15         WHEREAS, while in Orlando, Ms. Benjumea participated in

16  a senior-citizen program run by the City of Orlando, and

17         WHEREAS, on July 11, 1996, a fellow participant in the

18  program gave Ms. Benjumea a ride from the center and

19  mistakenly left her at an apartment complex other than the one

20  in which her daughter resided, and

21         WHEREAS, in an effort to walk to her daughter's home,

22  Ms. Benjumea became lost, and a sheriff's deputy undertook to

23  drive her to adult protective services, and

24         WHEREAS, on the way to their destination, the deputy

25  rear-ended a 1992 Lexus automobile at such a speed as to cause

26  airbags in the sheriff's vehicle to deploy, and

27         WHEREAS, after the accident, Ms. Benjumea was evaluated

28  at a hospital for complaints of neck and back pain and

29  released, but, during the next several weeks, she experienced

30  increased headaches, dizziness, and confusion, and

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    Florida Senate - 2001        (NP)                        SB 10
    14-19-01




  1         WHEREAS, on August 3, 1996, Maria Garcia found her

  2  mother lying in the grass in front of her apartment complex,

  3  and Ms. Benjumea was taken to Florida Hospital South, where a

  4  CT Scan of the brain revealed very large bilateral subacute

  5  subdural hematomas, and

  6         WHEREAS, surgical procedures were performed to open the

  7  skull and relieve the hematomas, and

  8         WHEREAS, Ms. Benjumea was released from the hospital 3

  9  days later but returned there in September 1996, because of

10  coagulation and clotting, and

11         WHEREAS, at a trial based on allegations that the

12  aforementioned accident had caused brain injury, a neurologist

13  testified that Ms. Benjumea had suffered a traumatic brain

14  injury with residual cognitive and behavioral impairment and

15  further concluded that Ms. Benjumea is totally incapacitated

16  and is in need of constant supervision, and

17         WHEREAS, a three-person medical panel, in connection

18  with Ms. Benjumea's guardianship proceeding in 1997, issued

19  findings consistent with the doctor's opinion, and

20         WHEREAS, at trial, a jury determined that the sheriff

21  was 100 percent at fault in the accident, and the jury awarded

22  Ms. Benjumea damages totalling $384,433, including $87,745 for

23  past medical expenses, $172,000 for future medical expenses,

24  and $124,688 for past and future pain and suffering, and

25         WHEREAS, plaintiff agreed to a remittitur post-trial,

26  and a final judgment in the amount of $362,954, including

27  taxable costs, was entered in October, 1998, and

28         WHEREAS, the sheriff has tendered $100,000 in

29  accordance with the limits on waiver of sovereign immunity

30  which are set forth in section 768.28, Florida Statutes, NOW,

31  THEREFORE,

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    Florida Senate - 2001        (NP)                        SB 10
    14-19-01




  1  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

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  3         Section 1.  The facts stated in the preamble to this

  4  act are found and declared to be true.

  5         Section 2.  The Orange County Sheriff's Office is

  6  authorized and directed to appropriate from funds of the

  7  sheriff's office not otherwise appropriated and to draw a

  8  warrant in the sum of $262,954, payable to Maria Garcia as

  9  legal guardian of Delfina Benjumea, to be placed in the

10  guardianship account of Delfina Benjumea to compensate Delfina

11  Benjumea for injuries and damages sustained as a result of the

12  negligence of an employee of the Orange County Sheriff's

13  Office. Upon the death of Ms. Benjumea, any balance of this

14  appropriation remaining in the guardianship account shall

15  revert to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. It is the intent

16  of the Legislature that no funds appropriated by this act be

17  spent, incurred, or obligated under the guardianship account

18  for any extraordinary expenditures without prior order of the

19  circuit court.

20         Section 3.  This act shall take effect upon becoming a

21  law.

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