$1.2M deal falls through for Pasco man injured in 2006 school bus crash

A Pasco County family’s 15-year effort to collect financial relief for their son’s injuries in a 2006 school bus crash fell apart in the waning days of the Florida legislative session.

A bill to waive the state’s sovereign immunity protections, which prevented the school district from paying more than $200,000 to the crash victims, appeared to be moving toward approval after several failed attempts.

The movement prompted the Pasco school board in February to agree to a $1.2 million settlement with the family of Marcus Button, now 33, who 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.

A jury in 2009 found the bus driver to be at fault and awarded the family $1.6 million — far less than the expected amount to cover medical expenses and care for the rest of Button’s life. The Buttons have tried to get the bulk of the award ever since.

After reaching the agreement, lawyers for the family and district sent letters advising state lawmakers of the deal. That should have paved the way for the claim bill, said Lance Block, who represented the Buttons.

But the Senate committee to which the bill was assigned had no more meetings scheduled by that point, and so the measure languished there. By early Thursday, House sponsor Rep. Alex Andrade said the item had “no chance” of passing to the governor’s desk this year.

Without the bill, the district does not have the authority to pay the agreed amount despite the signed settlement, said Paul Meeker, the school board’s lawyer.

The settlement remains in effect for future attempts at a claim bill, Block said.

He said the Button family is disappointed but grateful to Andrade and state Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, for helping shepherd the bill. “We’ll try again next session,” Block said.