Florida Senate - 2022                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 262
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì260514{Î260514                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
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       The Committee on Judiciary (Rodriguez) recommended the
       following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete everything after the enacting clause
    4  and insert:
    5         Section 1. Subsections (5) and (8) of section 768.21,
    6  Florida Statutes, are amended, and subsections (3) and (4) of
    7  that section are republished, to read:
    8         768.21 Damages.—All potential beneficiaries of a recovery
    9  for wrongful death, including the decedent’s estate, shall be
   10  identified in the complaint, and their relationships to the
   11  decedent shall be alleged. Damages may be awarded as follows:
   12         (3) Minor children of the decedent, and all children of the
   13  decedent if there is no surviving spouse, may also recover for
   14  lost parental companionship, instruction, and guidance and for
   15  mental pain and suffering from the date of injury. For the
   16  purposes of this subsection, if both spouses die within 30 days
   17  of one another as a result of the same wrongful act or series of
   18  acts arising out of the same incident, each spouse is considered
   19  to have been predeceased by the other.
   20         (4) Each parent of a deceased minor child may also recover
   21  for mental pain and suffering from the date of injury. Each
   22  parent of an adult child may also recover for mental pain and
   23  suffering if there are no other survivors.
   24         (5)(a) Medical or funeral expenses due to the decedent’s
   25  injury or death may be recovered by a survivor who has paid
   26  them.
   27         (b) Notwithstanding chapter 766, the presuit procedures in
   28  chapter 766 do not apply to a wrongful death action in which the
   29  estate and survivors do not seek noneconomic damages, but seek
   30  reimbursement of or recovery for medical costs paid by or
   31  incurred by the decedent in the course of treatment or care
   32  related to medical negligence that resulted in the decedent’s
   33  death.
   34         (8) The damages specified in subsection (3) are shall not
   35  be recoverable by an adult child children and the damages
   36  specified in subsection (4) are shall not be recoverable by a
   37  parent parents of an adult child with respect to claims for
   38  medical negligence as defined by s. 766.106(1), unless the
   39  survivor regularly relied on the decedent for services and
   40  financial support and had a reasonable expectation that those
   41  services and support would continue to be provided at the same
   42  or similar level in the future.
   43         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2022.
   44  
   45  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
   46  And the title is amended as follows:
   47         Delete everything before the enacting clause
   48  and insert:
   49                        A bill to be entitled                      
   50         An act relating to wrongful death actions; amending s.
   51         768.21, F.S.; limiting the application of presuit
   52         procedures for medical negligence claims in certain
   53         wrongful death actions; allowing certain survivors to
   54         recover noneconomic damages for medical negligence if
   55         they relied upon the decedent for services and
   56         financial support; providing an effective date.