"SERVING
ALL OF FLORIDA"
Chandler suit asks money from suspects, insurance
The teen wants payment of medical bills from his father's uninsured motorist coverage.
By Craig Dezern
An attorney for Philip Chandler filed suit on Tuesday against the two teen-agers charged with kidnapping him and locking him in the trunk of his father's Mustang.
Chandler, 16, also sued State Farm insurance, claiming that the injuries he suffered after being locked in the stifling hot trunk should be covered by his father's $515,000 uninsured motorist policies.
Winter Park attorney Russell Troutman said the suit against Michael Daymon and Terrance Jenkins "reinforces the criminal system with the civil system."
Should the two be convicted, Troutman said, he hopes to be waiting with a civil judgment upon their release.
"We'll be there at that time insisting if they're going to be allowed out they should be required to pay a monthly stipend toward the judgment as a condition of their probation," Troutman said.
Should they fail to pay, he said, they could be returned to prison for violating parole.
The same suit, filed in Orange Circuit Court, also seeks to collect from State Farm.
Troutman contends that because Daymon and Jenkins have no insurance and injured Chandler during the operation of an automobile, Jim Chandler's two uninsured motorist policies should cover the teen-ager's injuries and treatment.
State Farm initially denied Chandler's claim, saying that because the Mustang was insured, the uninsured motorist coverage didn't apply.
But State Farm later sent Troutman another letter saying the claim was under investigation.
In some ways, the civil suit seems at odds with the criminal charges against Daymon and Jenkins.
In the criminal case, the two are charged with attempted murder, meaning that they intended to harm Chandler. But in the civil case, their actions are described as negligence.
Troutman said the civil suit relies on a claim of negligence because the insurance would not cover Chandler if the injuries were intentionally inflicted.
Money collected from the lawsuit would be used for Chandler's continuing medical expenses, Troutman said.
From:
The Orlando Sentinel
Wed., October 20, 1993
Troutman, Williams, Irvin, Green, Helms & Hemphill, P.A.
311 W. Fairbanks Avenue - Winter Park, Florida 32789 - Phone: (407) 647-2277