Copyright 1999 The Tribune Co. Publishes The Tampa Tribune
The Tampa Tribune
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May 27, 1999, Thursday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: FLORIDA/METRO, Pg. 1
LENGTH: 570 words
HEADLINE:
Bush signs tort reform into law;
BYLINE: DAVID WASSON, of The Tampa Tribune;
BODY:
TALLAHASSEE - The governor, however,
pledges to ask lawmakers to repeal immunity from lawsuits for some
airplane manufacturers.
Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday he has personal
misgivings about granting some airplane manufacturers immunity from injury
and death lawsuits.
But that wasn't enough to stop him from signing into
law a comprehensive measure placing new limits on product liability
lawsuits, even as relatives of airline disaster victims mounted a
last-minute appeal for his veto. "No bill this comprehensive could
reasonably be expected to be perfect," Bush said in a letter explaining
why he chose to sign the legislation, which supporters call tort reform.
"I am convinced, however, that the bill achieves its laudable objectives
and that its beneficial aspects far outweigh its few troublesome ones."
The governor, who made tort reform a campaign promise, pledged to seek
legislative repeal next year of the provision giving legal immunity to
airplane manufacturers on aircraft more than 20 years old. Because the law
includes a four-year grace period on the airplane immunity portion, Bush
said lawmakers could fix it before it takes effect.
Critics
countered that will be too late.
"This bill is not about reform," said
Scott Carruthers, executive director of the Florida Trial Lawyers
Association. "It's about political payback."
Carruthers said once legal
immunity is granted to any manufacturer in Florida, it can't be rescinded
- even by a unanimous vote of the Legislature. He said the association sent
letters advising Bush's office of case law on that issue and received no
response.
"What's ironic to me is that the very same week the FAA orders
emergency inspections of Boeing 727s ... to look at the wiring in those
planes, Florida is enacting a law shielding Boeing from any liability from
an air disaster from one of these kinds of defects," Carruthers added.
Business groups praised the governor's decision. Shortly after signing
the bill, Bush held a reception at the governor's mansion for the National
Federation of Independent Business, a group representing small-business
owners.
"With one stroke of his pen, Gov. Bush has swept away
small-business owners' fear of frivolous lawsuits," the business group's
state director, Bill Herrle, said in a statement Wednesday. "This new law
represents a huge step towards providing small business with a measure of relief
from lawsuit abuse."
The bill includes a formula to determine when
a business must pay for damages in a case that isn't entirely its fault
and caps punitive damages unless a victim can prove the wrongdoing was
intentional.
In addition to shielding airplane manufacturers from
design defects in aircraft more than two decades old, the new law also
puts a 12-year deadline on lawsuits against most other products.
Provisions of the bill take effect this summer and fall.
Personal
injury lawyer D. Daryl Romano of Tampa said the legislation undermines the role
of juries in deciding which lawsuits have merit.
"It's not going
to hurt attorneys," Romano said Wednesday. "It's going to hurt people."
Carruthers took it a step further. "This is probably the most extreme
and mean-spirited bill in the nation in protecting manufacturers at the
expense of consumers."
The tort reform measure was among 81 bills Bush
signed into law Wednesday.
LOAD-DATE: May 28, 1999
