Lisa Roose-Church|Livingston Daily
The number of lawsuits filed against Livingston County in recent years has declined, prompting some to believe the perception the county settles lawsuits rather than fighting them in court is fading.
Joseph Seward, a Royal Oak attorney who represents the county, attributes the attitude change to the “hard stance” county officials have taken in recent years to eliminate the easy-mark target from the county’s back.
“Without mentioning names, I’ve had one attorney flat out say (he) won’t sue the county because of the way they do things,” Seward said. “Clearly that means the county is doing things right. … The other part to that is that he knows, because the county is doing it the right way, it will be very difficult to get a settlement out of them.”
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A Livingston Daily analysis shows the total payouts from 2013 to August of this year was were $937,500– a 55% decrease from the roughly $2.1 million in thefive years prior to 2013.
The county has faced 76 lawsuits filed since 2004, and paid settlements in 27 of those. Seven included settlements of more than $100,000.
The two largest payouts were the wrongful death cases of Charles Keiser and Milly Suzich.
Keiser’s daughter alleged that a Michigan State Police trooper and Livingston County sheriff’s deputies used excessive force during their arrest of her father, whom she claims died after officers held his face down in a swamp while he was restrained and Tasered on Thanksgiving Day 2004.
Officers were trying to arrest Keiser after he drove a bulldozer on U.S. 23 in Hartland Township and after he had choked the trooper and fought with the other officers. Livingston County settled the case for $750,000, but a U.S. District Court judge dismissed the case against the trooper in 2010 after a jury found he did not violate Keiser's constitutional rights.
Suzich died in November 2009 in a two-vehicle crash involving a Livingston Essential Transportation Service bus at the intersection of Grand River Avenue and Highlander Way in Howell. Her husband was seriously injured in the crash.
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The county settled a lawsuit filed on behalf of Milly Suzich’s estate for $700,000 and an additional $150,000 was paid to her husband for his injuries, according to information from the county.
The smallest payout was $1,100.
Jennifer Palmbos, the county’s human resources/labor relations manager, said the county is responsible for the first $75,000 of expenses – whether it’s attorney fees or settlement claims – of any lawsuit. Expenses above that amount are paid from a casualty pool with the county’s insurer, Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority.
The MMRMA is comprised of several Michigan cities, townships and counties who contribute to the casualty pool.
Multiple phone messages left on voicemail in the last two weeks for MMRMA Executive Director Michael Rhyner were not returned.
Seward, whose services for the county began in the mid-2000s, said the general consensus by county commissioners at that time was “they were settling cases they would have preferred to litigate.
“It was their perception that they were too easy of a mark,” he said. “Keiser was the tipping point to where (the county) decided to stop paying so much money and began thinking, ‘Let’s see if we can stop getting sued.’”
The county appears to have achieved its goal because: “As far as I know, the county hasn’t been sued in two or three years,” Seward said, adding the last lawsuit filed was by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The ACLU suit, filed in 2014, followed one filed in 2011 by Prison Legal News. Both organizations targeted the Livingston County Jail’s policy not to deliver mail marked as “legal” to inmates and the postcard-only policy for inmate correspondence. Those suits were settled this year for $150,000 and $295,000, respectively.
“Those two cases skew the numbers,” Seward said. “(Prison Legal News) decided to use Livingston County as their attempt to get a foot hold on this issue in Michigan. It’s not a typical case you would see and I wouldn’t expect to see them again. Same with ACLU – they decided to take up an issue and focused on Livingston County.”
In the early 2000s, the county faced a rash of lawsuits, many against the Sheriff’s Office. Most of them alleged violations of prisoners’ rights, including the 2000 lawsuit filed by the ACLU that alleged female inmates were denied access to work-release programs and were subjected to a hostile and intimidating environment.
In the wake of those lawsuits, then-county leaders approved an anti-harassment policy for all county departments.
Seward said generally the nature of the lawsuits filed against the county arose from motor vehicle crashes. The largest expense – excluding attorney fees – in those suits can be the per-hour fee for professional experts, such as physicians or medical examiners.
Seward wasn’t able to provide an example in a Livingston County case, but he recalled one out-of-county case he handled in which a doctor was paid $2,000 per hour for a deposition.
Seward said it can be a difficult choice for county leaders across the state to decide when and how to settle lawsuits.
“Being a steward of public finances, it’s sometimes difficult to know immediately what’s the best course to take. Many times,” he said, “the question at the heart of the decision is what’s in the best interest of the county.”
Contact Livingston Daily justice reporter Lisa Roose-Church at 517-552-2846 or lrchurch@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @LisaRooseChurch.
