DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA

SECOND DISTRICT

CITY OF SARASOTA, a political subdivision of the State of Florida;

OFFICER JUAN JAIMES; and OFFICER ADAM ARENA,

Appellants,

v.

JOANNE SOUCY, as personal representative of the Estate of

John Kaafi, deceased, o/b/o Joanne Soucy; the Estate of 

John Kaafi; and the minor children, J.S. and Y.S.,

Appellees.

No. 2D2023-0248

August 14, 2024

Appeal pursuant to Fla. R. App. P. 9.130 from the Circuit Court for 

Sarasota County; Stephen Walker, Judge.

Bradley S. Bell and Philip A. Beach of Bell Law Group, P.A., Tampa, for 

Appellants.

Anthony J. Manganiello, III, of Icard, Merrill, Cullis, Timm, Furen & 

Ginsburg, P.A., Sarasota, for Appellees.

PER CURIAM.

Affirmed.
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KHOUZAM and BLACK, JJ., Concur.

CASANUEVA, J., Concurs with opinion.

CASANUEVA, Judge, Concurring.

I concur with the panel's resolution of the instant appeal. I write to 

discuss an issue which arises when the Florida Wrongful Death Act 

interacts with the requirements under section 768.79, Florida Statutes 

(2022), providing for an offer of judgment and demand for judgment. 

In my view, an issue arises because section 768.79 requires service 

upon a party, and the Florida Wrongful Death Act requires that the only 

permitted litigant to act as plaintiff in a wrongful death proceeding is a 

decedent's personal representative. As such, the personal representative 

is the only party with authority to accept a statutory proposal for 

settlement. Survivors are not parties in a wrongful death proceeding, 

although the Florida Wrongful Death Act demands that each survivor's 

claim be identified and set forth in the operative pleading.

I. Background

This appeal stems from an incident in 2015 where John Kaafi was 

a passenger in a vehicle which was stopped for a suspected 

nonfunctioning taillight. During the encounter, Mr. Kaafi was arrested 

and allegedly sustained injuries due to the use of excessive force by two 

officers with the Sarasota Police Department. Mr. Kaafi was brought to 

jail where he became incoherent. The Department called an ambulance, 

but Mr. Kaafi died two days later. 

Mr. Kaafi's mother, Joanne Soucy, as personal representative, filed 

a wrongful death action against the City of Sarasota (the City), Officer 

Juan Jaimes, and Officer Adam Arena. Ms. Soucy brought the claim on 
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behalf of herself, the Estate of John Kaafi, and two minor children, J.S. 

and Y.S. Each of the three defendants sent a proposal for settlement to 

each party named in the operative complaint—a total of twelve proposals. 

The three proposals directed to the Estate were addressed to Ms. Soucy, 

as personal representative. The remaining nine were addressed to the 

individual survivors, as plaintiffs. Ms. Soucy, as personal representative, 

accepted the three proposals for settlement directed to the Estate. 

However, an issue arose as to whether the acceptance of the proposals 

for settlement directed to the Estate precluded the remaining survivors

from further litigating their claims.

II. Discussion

"Because wrongful death actions did not exist at common law, all 

claims for wrongful death are created and limited by Florida's Wrongful 

Death Act." Cinghina v. Racik, 647 So. 2d 289, 290 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994). 

The Florida Wrongful Death Act consists of sections 768.16 to 768.26. 

And in examining the pertinent sections of the Florida Wrongful Death 

Act, we adhere to the "supremacy-of-text principle"—that is, "[t]he words 

of a governing text are of paramount concern, and what they convey, in 

their context, is what the text means." Antonin Scalia & Bryan A. 

Garner, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts 56 (2012).

Section 768.20 defines who may be a proper party plaintiff under 

the Florida Wrongful Death Act. The section expressly commands that a 

wrongful death action "shall be brought by the decedent's personal 

representative." And as the only permissible plaintiff, the personal 

representative is further tasked with "recover[ing] for the benefit of the 

decedent's survivors and estate all damages, as specified in this act, 

caused by the injury resulting in death." § 768.20. To assist a 

defendant, section 768.21 identifies the damages allowable and requires
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that "[a]ll potential beneficiaries of a recovery for wrongful death, 

including the decedent's estate, shall be identified in the complaint, and 

their relationship to the decedent shall be alleged." Thus, while the 

personal representative is the only plaintiff in a wrongful death action, 

the survivors and beneficiaries still maintain their independent interests. 

As this court has observed, "survivors' claims in a wrongful death action 

are for their sole benefit." Hartford Ins. v. Goff, 4 So. 3d 770, 773 (Fla. 2d 

DCA 2009).

In 1986, the legislature created the "offer of judgment,"

interchangeably referred to as the "proposal for settlement," when it 

promulgated section 768.79. Ch. 86-160, § 58, Laws of Fla. Its purpose 

was to "reduce litigation costs and conserve judicial resources by 

encouraging the settlement of legal actions." Kuhajda v. Borden Dairy 

Co. of Ala., LLC, 202 So. 3d 391, 395 (Fla. 2016) (quoting Attorneys' Title 

Ins. Fund, Inc. v. Gorka, 36 So. 3d 646, 650 (Fla. 2010)). Section 

768.79(1) provides that "[i]n any civil action for damages filed in the 

courts of this state, if a defendant files an offer of judgment which is not 

accepted by the plaintiff within 30 days, the defendant shall be entitled 

to recover reasonable costs and attorney's fees incurred" when certain 

conditions are met. Certainly, an action filed pursuant to the Florida 

Wrongful Death Act is a civil action for damages to which section 768.79 

applies. 

But the statute in its current form plainly discusses the rights and 

duties it creates in terms of parties. Section 768.79(1) suggests that only 

a "plaintiff" or "defendant" may make an offer of judgment that would 

trigger rights or duties under the statute. To make a valid offer, the 

"plaintiff" or "defendant" must "[n]ame the party making [the offer] and 

the party to whom [the offer] is being made," § 768.79(2)(b), and must 
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state the offer's total amount, § 768.79(2)(d). And the offer must be 

"served upon the party to whom it is made." § 768.79(3). The statute 

then goes on to explain when and how the right to obtain attorney's fees 

arises if the "plaintiff" or "defendant" to whom the offer is made does not 

accept the offer. § 768.79(7).1

However, as discussed above, each claimant in a wrongful death 

suit is not, by and large, a "party," "plaintiff," or "defendant" that would 

have the ability to either proffer an offer of judgment or accept or reject 

one offered to them under section 768.79. 

Over two decades ago, when speaking on proposals for settlement, 

this court observed that the "rule intends for a proposal for judgment to 

be as specific as possible, leaving no ambiguities so that the recipient 

can fully evaluate its terms and conditions." Lucas v. Calhoun, 813 So. 

2d 971, 973 (Fla. 2d DCA 2002) (citing United Servs. Auto. Ass'n v. Behar, 

752 So. 2d 663, 665 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000)). In Gorka, our supreme court 

opined that precedent revealed the following principle:

[A]n offer of judgment must be structured such that either 

offeree can independently evaluate and settle his or her 

respective claim by accepting the proposal irrespective of the 

other parties' decisions. Otherwise, a party's exposure to 

potential consequences from the litigation would be 

dependently interlocked with the decision of the other 

offerees.

36 So. 3d at 650. In my view, this rationale ought to be applied in 

actions under the Florida Wrongful Death Act. One only need substitute 

the holder of a claim for damages—a survivor—in place of party and 

1 "Section 768.79 is implemented by Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 

1.442 ('Proposals for Settlement')." Willis Shaw Express, Inc. v. Hilyer 

Sod, Inc., 849 So. 2d 276, 278 (Fla. 2003). The rule, like the statute, 

uses the terms "party," "plaintiff," and "defendant" in describing the 

obligations and duties created by section 768.79.
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offeree to empower the survivor to make his or her own governing 

decision.

III. Conclusion

Keeping in mind that the avowed purpose of the proposal for 

settlement framework is to end judicial labor and not to create more, 

Lucas, 813 So. 2d at 973, I would respectfully suggest a textual 

modification to the statute in question. Pursuant to the statutory 

proposal of settlement, a beneficiary/survivor in an action under the

Florida Wrongful Death Act should be deemed to be a party for the 

limited purpose of responding to a proposal for settlement, and for 

purposes of the statutory sanction, be solely liable where necessary. 

Such a change in the statute would add a measure of clarity to the 

statute's operation and function.

Opinion subject to revision prior to official publication.