Re: Florida Toxic Tort

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On 11/20/07, Bob wrote:
> Can anyone direct me to the statute for toxic torts in
> Florida

Toxic tort law will involve a great deal more case law than
statutory law. A tort by any other name is still a tort.
There are intentional torts, negligent torts, strict
liability torts, etc. A tort may involve negligent operation
of a vehicle or negligent or intentional discharge of a toxic
substance by a big company but both are still subject to the
basic concepts of tort law which are not real simple.

Before you explore the field of toxic torts, you should first
look to the general tort law of Florida. You can go to the
statute below to read the full text but here is an excerpt
that lays out the beginning of a tort action which is
subjecting another party (defendant) to jurisdiction:
-----------------
Fla. Stat. § 48.193. Acts subjecting person to jurisdiction
of courts of state
(1) Any person, whether or not a citizen or resident of
this state, who personally or through an agent does any of
the acts enumerated in this subsection thereby submits
himself or herself and, if he or she is a natural person, his
or her personal representative to the jurisdiction of the
courts of this state for any cause of action arising from the
doing of any of the following acts:
***(b) Committing a tortuous act within this state.
------------------
A toxic tort may have several causes of action but not all of
them are private causes of action. For example if a river is
being polluted near you, you may have no cause of action
except under the terms of the Clean Water Act. [33 U.S.C. §
1251, et seq.]

In any tort action you must of course prove personal damages
to make a claim. Is the damage to you personally? Or is the
damage to an environment you enjoy as a citizen. You may
gain standing as a citizen in a law suit to stop a polluter
from destroying the environment but your remedy may not
include a personal damage award. If you are suing a building
owner because you were exposed to toxic substances in his
building then you probably have a personal claim for damages.

Start your research by looking to basic tort law concepts
then determine if you have a personal claim of damage caused
by a toxic substance and whether the person or company
responsible for the toxic substance owed you a duty of care
that they breached.

You need to show that you personally suffered measurable
damages caused by a breach of a duty of care that was owed to
you by a third party. It gets more complicated from there
but before you go looking for toxic tort case law, get to
know basic tort law. On Amazon book store online you can
purchase a used tort law outline book for a few dollars.
That is a good way to learn the basics of tort law. Tort law
does not vary a great deal from state to state; it is based
largely on common law principles.