The newspaper’s analysis also found that almost half, or $4.5 million, of all settlement payouts were attached to lawsuits alleging misconduct by police officers and sheriff’s deputies.
And the largest settlements didn’t go to individuals, but rather to other governments and developers.
The largest payout in either county over the past five years — $3.5 million — came in 2008 when Oxford settled three lawsuits with the developer of the Western Knolls subdivision. The developer sued the city over zoning changes, it claimed, damaged the project. Oxford officials wound up buy all the remaining undeveloped land in the subdivision (47 acres) to settle the case.
City Manager Doug Elliott called the settlement “a smart decision.”
“By reaching this agreement prior to trial, the city brought closure to its dispute with the developer, avoided the likelihood of other resulting cases favoring property owners and avoided the uncertainty of a jury trial,” Elliott said.
Hamilton Twp. in Warren County was sued by a group of private development companies and home builders over impact fees, a tax the township imposed on anyone wanting a building permit. The case went to the Ohio Supreme Court, which ordered $2.5 million in fees collected by the township be returned to those who paid it.
Also in Warren County, Deerfield Twp. sued the city of Mason over unpaid taxes from a decades-old annexation dispute. Mason recently had to pay Deerfield Twp. $1.6 million.
There were 40 cases against law enforcement agencies in the two counties, mostly for excessive force and jail treatment complaints. The lowest amount paid for a police or sheriff suit was $500 to a plaintiff, who represented himself in court without an attorney, claiming he was denied medical treatment at the Butler County Jail. The two largest payouts were for $750,000 each out of Oxford and Middletown.
Oxford’s insurance company recently settled with the Piskura family in federal court over a 2008 Taser incident when 24-year-old Kevin Piskura died. Middletown’s settlement was with the family of Donald “Pops” McCray, who died after Officer David Kirsch struck him with his police cruiser while responding to a call for a fellow officer needing assistance in 2007.
“Our officer was traveling at a high rate of speed and hit him,” Law Director Les Landen recalled.”That is one of the more difficult cases we’ve had to deal with.”
Not all of the lawsuits filed against police resulted in settlements. Hamilton Law Director Colleen Taylor shared records of all the lawsuits the city has faced the past five years, and of the eight cases against the police, the city prevailed in six.
Insurance covers almost all major and minor claims filed against governments, officials said. One recent example where that didn’t happen was the lawsuit involving Deerfield Twp. and Mason. Mason City Manager Eric Hansen said the city had to pay the $1.6 million out of pocket because it was “a dispute over a bill.”
“This isn’t a mistake or an omission or a liability situation as far as risk management goes,” he said.
Taylor said governments get many claims and the insurance companies generally sort them out.
“We get a lot of people that make claims on our insurance company, and then we have a third party administrator who handles all the claims that come in,” she said. “I’d say the majority are denied and it never gets past the insurance company level.”
Gary Sheets, assistant Butler County administrator, said the county’s annual property and casualty insurance bill for May 2013 to 2014 will be $1.1 million. They have a $5,000 deductible for property damage claims and $25,000 for liability claims.
Warren County recently changed it’s insurance plan to save money, according to Assistant Administrator Tiffany Zindel. The old annual premium was $666,151 — which is $121,179 more than the county has paid out in settlements over the past five years — with a $2,500 deductible. By switching to a $50,000 deductible the new premium is $406,000.
“You’re basically self-insuring more of the risk,” she said. “Our claims data for the past five years when you compare what our premium would have been, with a $2,500 deductible, versus a $50,000 deductible, there’s a cost savings.”
Area governments don’t always wind up on the paying end of lawsuits either. Seventeen of 23 three lawsuits Hamilton has been involved in have ended positively for the city, including a settlement against International Paper and SMART Paper for $2.85 million in January over a wastewater users agreement dispute. The city of Monroe had to spend $1.5 million in attorneys fees in a four-year battle with SunCoke Energy over its plant on Ohio 4 — money that will be recouped after the city settled the lawsuit over emission controls.
Governments also have to endure a lot of frivolous suits, officials said. Taylor said one such case involved a woman who tried to claim hearing loss because she were standing too close to a fire truck blaring its siren.
Landen said outrageous lawsuit do crossed his desk from time to time.
“There are ones that when I’ve read them I’ve gone, ‘Really?’ ” he said.
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