Anti Federalist
10-11-2014, 09:37 PM
Paying for mistakes, city prepares for a 'catastrophic claim'
http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2014/10/11/paying-mistakes-city-prepares-catastrophic-claim/17132273/
Amos Bridges, News-Leader 9:04 p.m. CDT October 11, 2014
At $700,000, the legal settlement the city of Springfield will pay to an unarmed man shot by a city police officer is the single largest claim the city has paid this century. But timing, as they say, is everything.
Former officer Jason Shuck reportedly mistook his handgun for a Taser when he shot a fleeing panhandler, Eric David Butts, on May 9.
If the shooting had occurred just 53 days later, citizens might have saved $450,000.
(Awww, shucks. - AF)
The city's new liability insurance policy, which took effect July 1, puts a cap on the amount of taxpayer money at risk if the city is sued. City funds must cover the first $250,000 of any legal settlement, but insurance pays anything after that, to a maximum of $20 million.
The policy replaces a patchwork of earlier liability plans that provided coverage for individual city departments and functions, while extending insurance to high-risk operations including the police, fire and public works departments, which largely lacked coverage until now.
"We were bare," said Doug Stone, the contract risk manager the city hired in 2013. "What we're worried about with liability is a catastrophic claim."
Stone and other city officials say that catastrophe has yet to come. Other than Butts' settlement, only two other claims against the city since 2000 have resulted in costs that exceeded $250,000. Including legal expenses, both came in at about $400,000.
All told, the city and its insurance carriers spent about $2.3 million to settle or defend against more than 200 legal claims filed between 2009 and early 2014, according to records compiled by the News-Leader. Uninsured claims filed between 2000 and 2008 add $2.2 million to the total.
"We've actually had good luck," said City Attorney Dan Wichmer, whose staff handles many of the smaller claims not covered by insurance.
Other Missouri cities, as well as those in other states, have not been as fortunate, Stone said. "We're kind of trying to learn at the expense of some other cities around us."
A slide show he presented to City Council in April included several recent examples of Missouri cities facing settlements of $1 million or more as a result of lawsuits alleging discrimination, wrongful death or negligence.
Cases involving wrongful convictions also have resulted in multimillion-dollar settlements. Ryan Ferguson, who was cleared last year of the 2001 murder of a Columbia sports editor, is suing the city and Boone County for $100 million.
"You could bankrupt our city with half that," said City Manager Greg Burris, who championed the new insurance policy and hopes to expand coverage in the future.
More at link...
http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2014/10/11/paying-mistakes-city-prepares-catastrophic-claim/17132273/
Amos Bridges, News-Leader 9:04 p.m. CDT October 11, 2014
At $700,000, the legal settlement the city of Springfield will pay to an unarmed man shot by a city police officer is the single largest claim the city has paid this century. But timing, as they say, is everything.
Former officer Jason Shuck reportedly mistook his handgun for a Taser when he shot a fleeing panhandler, Eric David Butts, on May 9.
If the shooting had occurred just 53 days later, citizens might have saved $450,000.
(Awww, shucks. - AF)
The city's new liability insurance policy, which took effect July 1, puts a cap on the amount of taxpayer money at risk if the city is sued. City funds must cover the first $250,000 of any legal settlement, but insurance pays anything after that, to a maximum of $20 million.
The policy replaces a patchwork of earlier liability plans that provided coverage for individual city departments and functions, while extending insurance to high-risk operations including the police, fire and public works departments, which largely lacked coverage until now.
"We were bare," said Doug Stone, the contract risk manager the city hired in 2013. "What we're worried about with liability is a catastrophic claim."
Stone and other city officials say that catastrophe has yet to come. Other than Butts' settlement, only two other claims against the city since 2000 have resulted in costs that exceeded $250,000. Including legal expenses, both came in at about $400,000.
All told, the city and its insurance carriers spent about $2.3 million to settle or defend against more than 200 legal claims filed between 2009 and early 2014, according to records compiled by the News-Leader. Uninsured claims filed between 2000 and 2008 add $2.2 million to the total.
"We've actually had good luck," said City Attorney Dan Wichmer, whose staff handles many of the smaller claims not covered by insurance.
Other Missouri cities, as well as those in other states, have not been as fortunate, Stone said. "We're kind of trying to learn at the expense of some other cities around us."
A slide show he presented to City Council in April included several recent examples of Missouri cities facing settlements of $1 million or more as a result of lawsuits alleging discrimination, wrongful death or negligence.
Cases involving wrongful convictions also have resulted in multimillion-dollar settlements. Ryan Ferguson, who was cleared last year of the 2001 murder of a Columbia sports editor, is suing the city and Boone County for $100 million.
"You could bankrupt our city with half that," said City Manager Greg Burris, who championed the new insurance policy and hopes to expand coverage in the future.
More at link...