Harvey Peeler

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler filed a bill Wednesday that could help the victims of the recent Cleveland Park tragedy in Spartanburg — or, at least, better reimburse people who find themselves in similar situations in the future.

Peeler, a Gaffney Republican, wants to exclude medical expenses from the current liability cap in state law that protects the government from paying unlimited damages in court. That cap — established in 1986 and raised only once since — is currently set at $300,000 per individual or $600,000 per occurrence, regardless of the number of government entities involved.

“I don’t want to create any kind of false optimism that I’ll be able to accomplish it,” Peeler said earlier this week. “To help the Cleveland Park people, it would have to be retroactive. Some of my legal scholars say we can do it, some say we can’t do it.”

Peeler’s bill states that it would be retroactive for one year upon the governor’s approval. Debate on that alone could be heavy.

Last month, 29 people — mostly children — were on the miniature train ride at Cleveland Park when it derailed near Asheville Highway. Six-year-old Benji Easler of Gaffney died in the crash, and many others were hospitalized. At least one remains in the hospital.

The train, which hadn’t been used since the county reacquired it in 2004, went on several test runs and was on its eighth public ride on March 19, an early opening day for the season, when the crash happened.

Under the Tort Claims Act, the people on board or otherwise affected by the crash are collectively limited to $600,000 in damages. Critics of the law have argued that a single person’s medical bills could reach or exceed that much.

Peeler’s measure would allow the government to pay for medical costs.

“It just shows the problems with tort legislation in South Carolina. With a government train, you have a $600,000 limit, but if it was a similar ride at Carowinds, the sky would be the limit. A private entity would be treated differently than a public entity,” he said. “To me, it’s a matter of fairness. We need to treat public entities the same as private. That’s what seems so unfair about the Cleveland Park situation.”

Peeler said he doesn’t want to jeopardize the larger tort reform bill being discussed in the Senate. He stressed that the families affected by the Cleveland Park crash would only benefit if the law could be retroactive.

Republican state Rep. Doug Brannon, an attorney from Landrum, said he would support efforts to make Cleveland Park victims’ families whole. But he expressed doubt that making Peeler’s amendment retroactive for them could be done without opening the state up to millions of dollars in liability from other avenues.

“I do not want to open the state up to a series of legal actions or other claims for damages,” he said.

Peeler’s bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee after its introduction. He introduced an identical amendment to the broader tort reform bill that is in line to be heard, possibly today or early next week.

Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, said the caps were a mistake in the first place.

“Now that we have identified the people who were hurt, and it was a terrible accident, (Peeler) seems to think these specific people need help and others do not,” Leventis said. “It struck me that wanting to move it because 28 people into $600,000 was not adequate, that he would realize the original bill was a mistake — that these artificial caps don’t match the reality of when tragedy strikes, like up in Spartanburg.”

Peeler’s bill, if passed, would allow people to recover all actual “economic damages.” Economic damages, according to the bill, include medical costs and care, rehabilitation services, burial costs, loss of employment and the loss of earnings, earning capacity and income, among other things.

The bill also would lower the limit on “non-economic damages” — pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement or inconvenience, among other things — from $300,000 per person to $50,000 per person.

Courtesy: GoUpstate.com