Company ordered to pay $3.9 million in damages for failing to run mobile COVID-19 clinic in Winter Haven

A Leon County circuit judge this week ordered a company to pay more than $3.9 million in damages after the state Division of Emergency Management said the firm did not provide a mobile-health clinic for use during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Judge John Cooper on Tuesday issued what is known as a default judgment against Verity International, Ltd., for $3.917 million and also ordered it to pay $314,000 in interest. The Division of Emergency Management filed the lawsuit in November, saying that it purchased a mobile-health clinic and equipment from the company in 2020 to conduct COVID-19 testing and other activities related to the pandemic.

The state paid $3.025 million to Verity. But as it tried to deploy the mobile health clinic to Winter Haven in July 2020, it determined the unit had not been built to state and local health codes, according to the lawsuit. Verity took the unit to North Carolina for repairs, but the lawsuit said the Division of Emergency Management did not receive a repaired unit. Attorneys for the division sought a default judgment after Verity did not respond to the lawsuit, according to a January court filing.