His medical condition deteriorated until his death on July 5, 2021″ according to the lawsuit.Ĭhief Deputy Anthony Dwyer cannot discuss pending litigation but said when operating a jail lawsuits are not unusual and many are dismissed, but the county still has to defend itself. The most recent wrongful death suit was filed in by Victoria Matthews the mother of Cody Bohanan, who allegedly “exhibited serious, obvious, and dangerous signs of detoxification, yet received no intervention to keep him safe and alive. Most of the cases are filed in federal court alleging misconduct against inmates at the jail. Because I believe we reviewed the policy and understood there was no coverage.”īutler County has had its share of legal troubles in the past few years, the sheriff’s office has been sued seven times since 2018 and the county has had to pay $680,000 out-of-pocket. But I don’t think we even submitted it to our insurance company and requested coverage. “If it was a civil rights case for example our insurance company would have provided coverage, absolutely. “This is a question of law, this is about whether or not legislation we passed was constitutional,” New Miami Village Solicitor Dennis Adams told the Journal-News previously. Normally when a governmental body is sued, its insurance - minus the deductible - covers the cost. Clair annexation settlement to fund roads That case finally ended after eight years in April. New Miami spent $487,943 defending itself against about 33,000 speeders who challenged the use of speed cameras. The six-year intergovernmental legal battle is the costliest in recent years, but not by much. Trustee Tom Barnes told the Journal-News “when we get paid they get paid, 60% of something is a whole lot better than 100% of nothing.” The agreement states the fees will be paid as the township receives its annual installments, which amounts to about $132,000 every time the township gets a check from the city. The trustees hired outside attorneys Curt Hartman and Chris Finney to handle the Common Pleas Court fight and agreed to a 33.3% contingency fee - an amount that is pretty standard - which amounts to about $1.3 million. The city’s insurance did not cover the cost. The court told the township it would likely take ‘largest forensic title exam ever’ to determine the amount and the proper venue was the Butler County Common Pleas Court.īlock said that portion of the lawsuit cost $297,652 in outside legal fees to defend, which was about 1,073.4 hours billed from January 2020 to August 2022. The high court denied the writ of mandamus, saying while Hamilton owes the township the money, this particular form of legal action is not available because the township hadn’t proven how much the city owes. That portion cost taxpayers $214,631 in outside legal fees for about 786.9 hours worth of work from August 2016 to August 2020. Hamilton Law Director Letitia Block told the Journal-News this was a two-pronged dispute that started with the Butler County Board of Revision, Ohio Board of Tax Appeals and eventually ended in the Ohio Supreme Court, where the city prevailed. Clair, Fairfield, Hanover and Ross townships. The law was triggered in 2016 when the city asked the county commissioners to form a “paper township” to fix the fact that boundary adjustment approval wasn’t formalized by the county previously when land was annexed from St. The crux of the lawsuit was over an annexation law the trustees’ lawyer asserted entitled it to 12-years worth of compensation for money lost due to the annexations.
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