Case ID: so2d_469/html/1382-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "OVERTON, Justice. SHAW, Justice,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Barbara URSIN, Petitioner, v. LAW ENFORCEMENT INSURANCE CO., etc., et al., Respondents.
    No. 65523.
    Supreme Court of Florida.
    May 23, 1985.
    David R. Linn and John B. Cechman of Goldberg, Rubinstein and Buckley, Fort Myers, for petitioner.
    Gayle Smith Swedmark of Madigan, Parker, Gatlin, Swedmark and Skelding, Tallahassee, for respondents.
   OVERTON, Justice.

We approve the result of the decision of the Second District Court of Appeal reported as Ursin v. Law Enforcement Insurance Co., 450 So.2d 1282 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984), on the authority of our decision in Reddish v. Smith, 468 So.2d 929 (Fla.1985).

It is so ordered.

BOYD, C.J., and ADKINS, ALDERMAN and McDONALD, JJ., concur.

SHAW, J., dissents with an opinion,

EHRLICH, J., dissents.

SHAW, Justice,

dissenting.

In this case a mentally disordered sex offender serving a twenty-year sentence for rape, kidnapping and robbery with eighteen years remaining on his sentence was placed in a trustee status in the county jail and assigned to the kitchen detail. The “trustee” simply walked away, kidnapped petitioner within minutes, and sexually molested her. If holding the government entity liable for negligence would “chill” this type of government discretion, as the majority fears, I express a strong belief that this is precisely what the people and the legislature intended when they waived sovereign immunity. I dissent for the reasons set forth in my dissents in Reddish v. Smith, 468 So.2d 929 (Fla.1985); Everton v. Willard, 468 So.2d 939 (Fla.1985); and Duvall v. City of Cape Coral, 468 So.2d 961 (Fla.1985).