HB 1597
1
A bill to be entitled
2An act for the relief of Eric Brody by the Broward County
3Sheriff's Office; providing for an appropriation to
4compensate Eric Brody for injuries sustained as a result
5of the negligence of the Broward County Sheriff's Office;
6providing a limitation on the payment of fees and costs;
7providing an effective date.
8
9 WHEREAS, on the evening of March 3, 1998, 18-year-old Eric
10Brody, a college-bound high school senior, was returning home
11from his part-time job at the Sawgrass Mills Sports Authority,
12driving his 1982 AMC Concord eastbound on Oakland Park Boulevard
13in Sunrise, Florida, and
14 WHEREAS, that same evening, Broward County Sheriff's Deputy
15Christopher Thieman was driving his Broward County Sheriff's
16Office cruiser westbound on Oakland Park Boulevard on his way to
17work at the Weston Station, and
18 WHEREAS, at the time that Deputy Thieman left the home of
19his girlfriend, he had less than 15 minutes to travel 11 miles
20in order to make roll call on time. The speed limit on his route
21to the Weston Station was 45 mph, and
22 WHEREAS, at approximately 10:36 p.m., Eric Brody attempted
23to make a left-hand turn into his neighborhood at the
24intersection of N.W. 117th Avenue and Oakland Park Boulevard.
25Eric Brody's car cleared two of the three westbound lanes on
26Oakland Park Boulevard. Deputy Thieman, who had been traveling
27in the inside westbound lane closest to the median, suddenly and
28inexplicably steered his vehicle to the right, across the center
29lane and into the outside lane, where the front end of his car
30struck the passenger side of Eric Brody's car, just behind the
31right front wheel and near the passenger door, and
32 WHEREAS, Deputy Thieman claimed at trial that he had no
33idea how fast he was traveling and there were no reported
34witnesses to the accident; however, experts for the claimant and
35the defendant testified that Deputy Thieman was driving between
3660 mph and 70 mph when he struck the passenger side of Eric
37Brody's car, and
38 WHEREAS, Eric Brody was found unconscious 6 minutes later
39by paramedics, his head and upper torso leaning upright and
40toward the passenger-side door. Although Eric Brody was out of
41his seat belt, photographs of the accident scene show that the
42seat belt was fully spooled out, with the retractor jammed,
43dangling out of the driver-side door, indicating it had been in
44use at the time and involved in a high-speed impact. The right
45side of Eric Brody's head had struck the intruding passenger-
46side door, causing skull fractures and brain sheering, bruising,
47bleeding, and swelling, and
48 WHEREAS, Eric Brody was airlifted by helicopter to Broward
49General Hospital where he was placed on a ventilator and
50underwent an emergency craniotomy. He was in a coma for 6 months
51and underwent extensive rehabilitation, having to relearn how to
52walk and talk, and
53 WHEREAS, Eric Brody, who is now 29 years old, has been left
54profoundly brain-injured and lives with his parents. His speech
55is barely intelligible, he has significant memory loss and
56cognitive dysfunction, and he has visual problems. Eric also has
57impaired fine and gross motor skills and has very poor balance.
58Although Eric is able to use a walker for short distances, he
59must mostly uses a wheelchair to get around. The entire left
60side of his body is partially paralyzed and spastic, and he
61needs help with many of his daily functions. Though he has a
62normal life expectancy, Eric Brody is permanently and totally
63disabled, and
64 WHEREAS, the Brody family alleged in their lawsuit against
65the Broward County Sheriff's Office that Deputy Thieman was
66negligent in the operation of his vehicle by driving too fast
67and by steering his vehicle two lanes to the right where the
68impact occurred. In reconstructing the accident, experts
69determined that if Deputy Thieman had remained within the inside
70lane, there would have been no collision, and
71 WHEREAS, the Broward County Sheriff's Office alleged that
72Eric failed to yield the right-of-way and use his seat belt.
73However, the seat belt expert the Broward Sheriff's Office
74called at trial admitted under cross-examination that the fact
75that the seat belt was spooled out and the retractor jammed was
76consistent with seat belt usage in a high-speed impact, and
77 WHEREAS, the Brodys proved at trial that Deputy Thieman's
78speed caused Eric Brody to misjudge the time and distance he had
79to clear the intersection. The Brody's experts re-created the
80accident by conducting an exact car-to-car crash test, using
81identical vehicles, an instrumented hybrid III dummy, and fast-
82action cameras. The crash test demonstrated that regardless of
83the fact that the seat belt was spooled out and the retractor
84was jammed, given the severity of this crash and the significant
85amount of intrusion into the occupant compartment where Eric was
86seated, Eric's head would have made contact with the passenger
87door anyway and a seat belt could not have prevented his
88injuries. During the crash, the test dummy, which was wearing a
89seat belt, struck its head on the passenger door within inches
90of where Eric Brody's head actually struck the passenger door,
91providing additional proof that Eric was wearing a seat belt,
92and
93 WHEREAS, on December 1, 2005, a Broward County jury made up
94of three men and three women found that Deputy Thieman and the
95Broward County Sheriff's Office were 100 percent negligent and
96Eric Brody was not comparatively negligent, and rendered a
97$30,690,000 verdict in favor of the then 25-year-old Eric Brody.
98The trial lasted almost 2 months, including a 2-week break due
99to Hurricane Wilma, and
100 WHEREAS, judgment was entered shortly after the jury
101verdict for the full amount of $30,690,000, and the court
102entered a cost judgment for $270,372.30, for a total judgment of
103$30,960,372.30. The trial court denied the Broward County
104Sheriff's Office posttrial motions for judgment notwithstanding
105the verdict, new trial, or remittitur. The Broward County
106Sheriff's Office appealed the final judgment but not the cost
107judgment. The Fourth District Court of Appeal upheld the verdict
108and the amount of the verdict in the fall of 2007. The Broward
109County Sheriff's Office subsequently petitioned the Florida
110Supreme Court, which denied the petition in April of 2008.
111Therefore, all legal remedies have been exhausted and a claim
112bill against the Broward County Sheriff's Office is the only
113recourse available to Eric Brody, and
114 WHEREAS, before the lawsuit was filed, the Brodys made a
115demand for $3 million, which was the limit of the insurance
116policy of the Broward County Sheriff's Office, reiterated that
117demand at mediation, and gave the carrier additional time after
118mediation to pay the policy limit before the Brody's attorneys
119began the expense of preparing the case for trial. The insurance
120carrier ignored multiple attempts to settle the case and,
121instead, waited until the day the trial judge set the case for
122trial before offering to pay the limit of the policy. By that
123time, nearly $750,000 had been spent preparing the case for
124trial and Eric Brody had liens of nearly $1 million for his
125health care costs. Because so much money had been spent, it was
126determined that settlement was no longer feasible. By the time
127the trial was completed, an additional $250,000 had been spent
128on trial costs, and
129 WHEREAS, the failure of the liability insurance carrier for
130the Broward County Sheriff's Office to settle and pay the $3
131million policy limit when it could and should have done so on
132multiple occasions unreasonably exposed the Broward County
133Sheriff's Office to an excess judgment and claim bill.
134Consequently, upon passage of this claim bill, the Broward
135County Sheriff's Office will have standing to initiate an action
136against the insurer for bad-faith claims practice in order to
137recover the entire amount of the claim bill, and
138 WHEREAS, the Broward County Sheriff's Office has paid
139$200,000 pursuant to the limits of liability set forth under s.
140768.28, Florida Statutes, and
141 WHEREAS, Eric Brody seeks the remaining amount of the
142judgment through the submission of a claim bill to the
143Legislature, NOW, THEREFORE,
144
145Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
146
147 Section 1. The facts stated in the preamble to this act
148are found and declared to be true.
149 Section 2. The Sheriff of Broward County is authorized and
150directed to appropriate from funds of the Broward County
151Sheriff's Office not otherwise appropriated and to draw a
152warrant payable to Eric Brody in the sum of $10,000,000 as
153compensation for injuries and damages sustained.
154 Section 3. Any amount awarded under this act pursuant to
155the waiver of sovereign immunity permitted under s. 768.28,
156Florida Statutes, and this award is intended to provide the sole
157compensation for all present and future claims arising out of
158the factual situation described in the preamble to this act
159which resulted in the injury to Eric Brody. The total amount
160paid for attorney's fees, lobbying fees, costs, and other
161similar expenses relating to this claim may not exceed 25
162percent of the total amount awarded under section 2.
163 Section 4. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.