Governor Seeks Dismissal Of Suit Over Terri's Law

CLEARWATER - Gov. Jeb Bush cried foul in the dispute over Terri Schiavo's fate Wednesday, moving to block any rapid court action in the case.

A lawsuit filed against Bush by Michael Schiavo should not go forward because the governor was not served legal notice he is being sued, said Kenneth Connor, special counsel for the governor.

Also, all such suits against the governor must be filed in Tallahassee, Connor said.

"The governor has a right to a home venue privilege," Connor said. Otherwise, Bush would have to "trot all over the state" every time someone sued him, Connor said.

Bush will not file a response to Michael Schiavo's constitutional challenge to Terri's Law until the case is put on a proper footing with proper notice in the proper venue, Connor said.

"This is one of the most shameful delaying tactics I've ever seen," Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, said.

Michael Schiavo filed his lawsuit against Bush and Attorney General Charlie Crist on Oct. 21, the same day the Legislature enacted a measure dubbed Terri's Law. The law gave Bush the power to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case.

That evening, Bush ordered that a feeding tube be reinserted into Schiavo's stomach so she could begin receiving liquid nutrition after almost seven days without food or water.

Schiavo's feeding tube had been removed on court orders Oct. 15 after almost 5 1/2 years of litigation between her husband and her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.

Schiavo, 39, has been in what some doctors term a persistent vegetative state since suffering heart failure in 1990.

After a January 2000 nonjury trial, a judge ruled Terri Schiavo made statements prior to her illness indicating she would not want to be kept alive in her current condition with no hope of improvement. The judge granted Michael Schiavo's request to discontinue feeding his wife, a ruling that has been upheld under repeated appeals by the Schindlers.

The St. Petersburg couple say their daughter reacts to them and could improve with therapy.

Bush first tried to intervene in the case in August, when he asked that Terri Schiavo be assigned an independent guardian ad litem to ensure her rights and interests were being protected. Bush said then he was acting in response to more than 25,000 e-mail messages and phone calls from people who want Schiavo kept alive.

Michael Schiavo's attorney has complained for years that the Schindlers and their supporters are engaged in delaying tactics designed to discourage his client and cause him to give up on what Michael Schiavo maintains is a quest to honor his wife's wishes.

On Wednesday, Felos accused Bush of using delay tactics to avoid the inevitable court ruling that Terri's Law is unconstitutional because it allowed the governor to violate the separation of powers and intrude on Terri Schiavo's right to refuse medical treatment.

"He is trying to avoid the day of reckoning by some niggling procedural grounds," Felos said.

Bush waived any need to be formally served with the lawsuit the night it was filed, when a member of his legal staff participated by telephone in an emergency hearing over whether Schiavo's feeding tube should be reinserted, Felos said.

The governor's attorney made no mention of the need to file the lawsuit in Tallahassee, he said.

"Why didn't they raise those objections at that time? It's shameless," Felos said.

Circuit Judge Douglas Baird said late Wednesday that he had not read the governor's motion to dismiss the lawsuit over Terri's Law. He said he will take no action until Felos has a chance to respond.

The attorney general is following the lead of the governor's office and will not be filing a response to the lawsuit, Crist spokeswoman Joann Carrin said.