Coroner questions use of taxes to cover services in civil suits

By Marc Kovac

Why should citizens have to pay to question public officials? a legislator asked.

COLUMBUS — Ohio taxpayers should not be subsidizing civil lawsuits between private parties, the Trumbull County coroner told state lawmakers Wednesday.

Humphrey Germaniuk, who has served in the Trumbull office since 1998, testified before the Ohio House’s judiciary committee, in support of legislation that would allow counties to charge fees when their coroners’ services are required as part of civil lawsuits.

Such services, including pretrial preparation and in-court testimony, “is done by a county employee on county time without reimbursement to the county for our expertise and time spent in private civil litigation,” Germaniuk said. “This is the equivalent of allowing a county employee to plow your private driveway on county time using a county vehicle without proper reimbursement to the county.”

HB 192 was offered by Rep. Tom Letson, a Democrat from Warren, after hearing Germaniuk’s concerns. Under the proposed legislation, coroners could charge a fee comparable to their regular hourly rate, with the proceeds deposited in the county’s general fund.

Other states already allow counties to charge for coroners’ services in civil cases, ranging from $350 per hour in Iowa to $650 per hour in Rhode Island, Germaniuk said.

At $200 per hour, Trumbull County could have recouped about $7,000 for work on civil cases over the past year, Germaniuk said.

“In these times of economic difficulty and a state budget in the intensive-care unit, we cannot overlook this opportunity at revenue generation,” he said. “While the final judgment in private civil litigation sometimes ranges into the hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars, the $2,500 or so paid to the county per case for their employees’ expertise and time is painlessly minuscule.”

But not all lawmakers on the judiciary committee appeared supportive of the legislation.

Rep. Bill Coley, a Republican from the southwestern Ohio, questioned why citizens should have to pay fees to question their public officials. And Rep. Michael Skindell a Democrat from the Cleveland area, said other law enforcement, county engineers and other public officials already provide testimony in cases without charging the types of fees that would be required by the bill.

“I think we’re going down the wrong line,” Skindell said.