Suit challenges Indiana's public entity liability cap in stage collapse
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INDIANAPOLIS—A lawsuit on behalf of people who were killed or injured during the Aug. 13 Indiana State Fair stage collapse in Indianapolis have challenged the state's public entity tort liability cap.
In the suit filed Monday, the plaintiffs argue that Indiana's $5 million tort liability cap for public entities violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as well as other federal and state laws.
State officials said earlier that the state will pay the full $5 million it is allowed to pay under Indiana law to victims of the stage collapse. Under Indiana law, claims against public entities are capped at $700,000 per person and a total of $5 million per occurrence.
State's tort law challenged
While several lawsuits had already been filed in connection with the stage collapse, “the Indiana Tort Claims Act prevented the immediate filing of tort actions against the state of Indiana and the relevant political subdivisions and state actors who had a hand in the tragedy,” the plaintiffs allege in the suit brought Monday in federal court in Indianapolis.
“Due to the unconstitutional caps on damages imposed by…the Indiana Tort Claims Act, plaintiffs who seek to have their claims adjudicated by a judge and jury or who otherwise disagree with the arbitrary and capricious allocation of damages imposed by the defendants' scheme and policy of ‘compensation,' will likely receive nothing since the caps will have been exhausted by prior settlements given the number and severity of claims against the state,” the plaintiffs said in the complaint. Indiana Gov. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. and Indiana Attorney General Gregory Zoeller were named as defendants.
The suit, filed on behalf of the estates of three of the seven people killed in the collapse and three others who were injured, is seeking class action status for potentially 60 other plaintiffs, according to court documents.
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