‘Inadequate.’ Families of deadly TN bus crash victims only eligible for $700K payout from school system, lawyer says

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – A Nashville attorney tells WSMV4 that a state law has created an “impossible position” for families of the middle school children who were in the fatal Kenwood Middle School bus crash.

That law, he said, puts a cap on the payout all impacted families could receive, and he says it likely isn’t even close to being enough.

So far, only one family — that of 13-year-old Zoe Davis — has sued the Clarksville Montgomery School System. Their daughter was one of two young girls killed in the crash. However, several more students were injured and had to be hospitalized.

In a YouTube video, attorney Christopher Smith of DRS Law Personal Injury Lawyers, explains that Tennessee has a law known as the Governmental Tort Liability Act. It essentially adds stipulations to how people sue government entities, including counties.

“They have limited their liability in cases like this to $700,000 in the aggregate,” Smith said. “It’s $300,000 maximum per person, or a maximum of $700,000 in the aggregate.”

He called the law “unjust, unfair and almost arbitrary in a situation like this.”

“We know that we’ve got at least two children who have died in this accident. We’ve got seven who were LifeFlighted. So, with all of those injuries, all of that loss, all of that harm that’s caused, $700,000 is the most the county will have to pay for it.”

Davis’ family alone asked in their lawsuit for damages in an amount deemed appropriate by a jury not to exceed $5 million.

The state is also capped at $300,000 per claimant, Smith says.

That particular coverage aside, Smith said that the state has created an “impossible position” for the judge who will have to decide on payouts for impact families — and others who could experience a similar situation.

“Because of this cap, a judge will be put in the impossible position of arbitrarily dividing a single $700,000 pool of money — deciding which grieving family or injured child gets what fraction of an already inadequate amount,” Smith said.

Rep. Gino Bulso filed a bill in the last legislative session to increase that cap. As introduced, it would have increased the amount that a person can get from government entities. Under that proposal, the maximum financial sum for bodily injury or death of a person would jump to $750,000. Additionally, the total for the bodily injury or death of all persons would be raised to $1.5 million, and the cap for the injury or destruction of property of others would be elevated to $250,000.

However, no action was taken on that bill after last April.

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