NILES COP CASE Family files another suit

Niles city has appealed the decision of a jury in April that it must pay $823,000.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- After a civil case awarding the family of a 30-year-old Howland man $823,000 in damages for his death in an accident with a Niles cruiser, his family is suing the city again.
Visiting Judge Thomas Patrick Curran is scheduled to hear a lawsuit Jan. 6 in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court filed by the estate of Mark Simpson against Niles.
This lawsuit asks for prejudgment interest in the amount of $1 million.
The family has not received any of the $823,000 judgment, which was reduced from an original judgment of $987,000 because of medical bills that had been previously paid.
A suit seeking prejudgment interest is one in which the party that wins the judgment asks for interest on that judgment dating back to the time of the accident -- in this case April 8, 1996 -- if the party required to pay the money failed to make a good-faith effort to settle the case, the lawsuit states.
Simpson's estate had won a case in April in common pleas court against the city. Then, jurors determined the family was entitled to the $823,000 as damages because Police Chief Bruce Simeone's cruiser crashed into Simpson in 1996, killing him and another man.
Simeone was a captain at the time of the crash, and he was responding to a hostage situation at Ponderosa Restaurant on U.S. Route 422 when his cruiser collided with a Corvette pulling from a parking lot on Route 422 a short distance from the restaurant.
Another man killed
Also killed in the accident was Bronsel Cain Jr., 29, whose family reached an undisclosed settlement in April.
A jury found in January that Simeone and the city were liable for the accident. A grand jury previously found no criminal wrongdoing by the chief. After this, another court proceeding was held to determine the monetary damages.
After the Simpson family's outcome in court in April, Niles appealed the decision to the 11th District Court of Appeals, which has not yet heard the case.
runyan@vindy.com