Man: The following segment is sponsored by Harding Mazzotti.
Interviewer: The city of Troy has reached a nearly $6 million settlement in the death of a man hit by a police cruiser. This was back in February of 2023. The man’s widow filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city, claiming the officer operated his police vehicle in a grossly negligent and reckless manner. So what happens when the police are at fault for a fatal car crash? We’ve got Managing Partner Paul Harding here from Harding Mazzotti.
So first, can you explain what were the actions reported initially by the officer and kind of what constitutes what in terms of negligence?
Paul: Sure. So what happened is, you know, you’ve got a situation where the negligent acts, or the acts, the officer were just really kind of off the charts, you know, heading 90 miles an hour in a 30-mile-an-hour zone, obviously forgetting to put sirens and lights on, heading to a domestic, which isn’t a serious thing, but not the thing where you just have to go at all costs, routine call for that police force. So doing the kinds of things that were wrong.
But historically, if you are a first responder or if you’re a firefighter, you’re even a snow plow operator, being negligent isn’t enough to bring a claim. If you’re negligent in the line of duty and you injure someone, no claim. It has to be a gross negligent, and in this case, the facts supported it.
Interviewer: Yeah. I was gonna say, what makes this case constitute as grossly negligent versus simply negligent?
Paul: Negligent’s like a mistake. You just kind of blew it. Like, you went there, you thought the light was green, it was red, and you just sort of made a mistake. So if a police officer did that, there’s actually no claim. But here, gross negligence is recklessness. You’ve acted so far out of the norm that do you rise to that next level? As lawyers, it’s a difficult burden to meet often. In this set of facts, it was met pretty easily.
Interviewer: Yeah. And how does the settlement happen now, moving forward? The city pays?
Paul: Well, yeah, so the city can only pay up to $1,000 without getting further verification. So this claim is significantly greater than that. So it’s gotta go in front of the city council. They need to approve the settlement, which I suspect they will, and then the funds are gonna come from various insurance policies or taxpayer dollars, and that should happen this month.
Interviewer: Okay, so it will be pretty quick.
Paul: That is the word on the streets, yes.
Interviewer: Alrighty. All right. Well, Paul, thank you so much for explaining it all for us. And for more info covered in our weekly “What Are Your Rights?” segments, or to send us a story idea, head to our website, cbs6albany.com.
