A man won $ 11 million in a case against the police after sentenced to killing a Sports editor of Missouri newspaper, but the former insurer of the city resisted the payment of most of them for almost three years. This week, a Missouri judge ordered the company to pay about $ 44 million.
Most of the money will go to Ryan Ferguson, which began in 2017 in the courts of a subordinate body of a passenger, a passenger-based, with a Saint Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company based in Minnesota, about six weeks after winning a federal case against six Colombian police officers. Ferguson was convicted in 2004 for the murder of the Columbia Daily Tribune Sports Editor Kent Hathlett, but was released from jail in 2013 after removing the conclusion of the state appeal court panel that he was not prosecuted. Ferguson maintained his innocence.
Immediately after winning its federal case, the City Insurance Company paid 7 2.7 million to Ferguson, and his lawyers expected that Million would pay 8 million under his coverage for officers from 2006 to 2011. But the company argued that it was not on the hook because of the arrest and custody of Ferguson’s arrest and its coverage before it began.
When Ferguson tried to collect, the officers argued that St. Paul was working in a bad faith, and that the burden on them was shifting as these individuals and forcing them to face bankruptcy. Ferguson’s lawyers raised the claims, and Missouri courts concluded that St. Paul was forced to pay $ 5.3 million for the time when he covered the officers. He paid in 2020.
But the payment did not end the dispute, and in November, a jury concluded that St. Paul had worked in a bad belief and was engaged in “surprising denial”. Coal County Circuit Judge S. Cotton Walker maintained that on Monday, according to his order, he calculated how much money the company would pay – as most of the punishment – under a Missouri law, suffers from such disadvantages.
“This is a way to send a message to insurance companies that if there is a coverage, they need to pay,” said Kathleen Zillner, whose firm represents Ferguson.
He added: “When you pay the premium, you can’t draw the carpet out of the under -under -under.”
The company can appeal the decision. A lawyer representing St. Paul did not immediately return a telephone message that was commented.
Under an agreement between Ferguson and six officers, they stand to distribute about $ 5 million out of the 44 million millions.
The $ 44 million award is 2 3.2 million, which is another $ 24.2 million sentence for compensation, which is 535,000 million for “ridiculous denial” charges and interest on all $ 16 million losses.
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