Peter Murphy and G. William “Bill” Bissett, of the Miami office, obtained a complete dismissal of a Plaintiff’s wrongful death claim. Pete and Bill moved to dismiss the case based on Florida’s “stand your ground law” immunity/defense. This was a hard-fought case that had been litigated since 2011. Plaintiff’s decedent was a teenager who was shot while stealing a jet ski from the home/yard of the Defendants, a prominent Plaintiff’s attorney and his wife. The Defendant’s wife happened upon the Plaintiffs’ teenage son trespassing in the back yard, eventually yelled for her minor son to get his father’s shotgun as her fear was escalating. The decedent would not respond to the wife’s frantic screaming to leave the property and she noticed he was holding a black object in his hand which she thought was a gun. Unbeknownst to the wife and her son, the decedent/criminal was deaf and could not hear the warnings. The individual lifted the 500+ pound Jet Ski off of the davit on the seawall and pushed it into Biscayne Bay right next to the seawall. There was also another jet ski circling just off shore. The criminal had thrown the black object into the front compartment and continued to reach into the front compartment. When the decedent got the Jet Ski started (using the black object), he circled directly below them in an idle speed instead of speeding away. After a menacing eye contact was made, the wife/mother told her son to “shoot” and 3 seconds later the firing of the Mossberg shotgun was heard on the 911 call. By that time, the Jet Ski had rotated more, thus changing the position of the decedent’s body and two pellets struck him in the head from a side/rear trajectory.
A “mini-trial” on the “stand your ground law” defense was held earlier this year. In lengthy, complex motions, and at the hearing, Pete and Bill successfully argued that Defendants’ son acted reasonably under the circumstances in fear for the safety of himself and the others in his home, and had no duty to “retreat” before using deadly force to protect himself and his mother from the imminent danger they felt was posed by the thief on their property who was not responding to repeated verbal warnings to leave. Pete questioned the witnesses and presented an opening and closing argument to the judge. Bill argued most of the hearings leading up to the mini-trial as well as taking a few depositions and drafting all the motions, memoranda and proposed order granting the motion to dismiss. The trial judge finally issued an 8-page order agreeing with Pete and Bill’s arguments and dismissing Plaintiff’s claims.