General fund to lose $30K to settle lawsuit

The county now has a different insurance carrier.
WARREN -- Trumbull County's cash-impaired general fund is taking a $30,000 hit in the settlement of a lawsuit for an accident claim that the county's old insurance company wouldn't cover.
The settlement, negotiated by the prosecutor's office, is related to a common pleas court case filed this year by Nick Loze against the county and a sheriff's captain.
Capt. Thomas Stewart in September 2004 was serving papers for the sheriff's department in Farmington Township and got his directions wrong, winding up in neighboring Geauga County. Stewart was at fault in the accident.
Stewart and Jason Earnhart, assistant prosecutor, explained that the cruiser stopped at a stop sign on a back road. The cruiser then eased forward in front of a truck that had the right-of-way and came on suddenly.
The truck swerved in an effort to avoid the cruiser, but was damaged when it went off the road into a culvert. Loze, the driver, said his livelihood was impaired. The cruiser was totaled. Stewart was not injured.
Problem is, Trumbull County's coverage when the accident occurred had a $50,000 deductible. That means the $30,000 now has to be paid out of a contingency fund under the general fund.
Renewed contract
Last May, the county had renewed a $495,000 annual insurance contract with Gallagher Pipino Inc., a division of Arthur Gallagher & amp; Co. of Chicago. County officials then found out the deductible for automobile coverage was $50,000.
In other words, each time a county car was involved in an accident, the first $50,000 of damage was the county's problem. One department with a large fleet of vehicles that was covered under the policy is the sheriff's department.
In 2001, Trumbull County decided to switch from the County Risk Sharing Authority, an insurance pool in which most of Ohio's 88 counties participate, to save $20,000 a year on the premium. But over the next three years, annual fees increased by more than 40 percent.
Last month, commissioners approved a new agreement to again obtain liability insurance from the County Risk Sharing Authority, in care of the County Commissioners Association of Ohio in Columbus. The first-year premium of $482,898 starting May 1 would provide for general liability, property damage, law enforcement liability and fleet insurance coverage until May 1, 2008.
Now the county would pay $5,000 per claim to its carrier, Earnhart said.