Boston pays at least $ 4.2 million to end lawsuits this year

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Boston has to shell out more than $ 4 million in settlements and judgments to resolve at least 42 lawsuits against the city this year alone – and has racked up a $ 14 million bill in the past five years to close the books on cases ranging from entrepreneurial stiffness to discrimination fit a wrongful death claim.

As of the start of 2016, the city will have poured at least $ 18.4 million into more than 300 settlements and judgments to close the lawsuits, according to data obtained from a Boston Herald registration application.

This calendar year, the city must pay at least $ 4.2 million in at least 42 settlements or judgments, compared to about $ 4.6 million in 40 payments in 2020 and just over $ 798,000 in 47 installments in 2019. , according to the data.

This includes $ 6.4 million in 57 coins in 2018, $ 1.5 million in 63 in 2017, and just over $ 946,000 in 50 in 2016.

Data that came back this week from the Herald’s request for registrations, which the Herald made in July, lists settlements – cases in which both sides have agreed to a payment from the city, with stipulations – until the end. August, as well as the same period, a small handful of rarer judgments, which come from when a judge, jury or other body hears the evidence and orders the city to fork out money.

That means the data doesn’t include, at the very least, the one that made the news earlier this week: a $ 2 million jury judgment awarded to Boston Police Detective Lt. Donna. Gavin after deciding that her boss Detective Captain Mark Hayes discriminated against her because of her gender, then fired back when she challenged. This money has not yet been paid and the city has until December 1 to appeal.

This is the third largest sum the city has had to disburse in this way since early 2016, according to the data. The most significant came in 2018, when Boston agreed to pay $ 5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of Kyzr Willis, a 7-year-old boy who drowned two years earlier at a swimming camp in city.

The other seven-figure settlement – which, like the Willis settlement, was widely reported at the time – came in 2020 to former Boston firefighter Nathalie Fontanez, who had sued the city alleging that her colleagues the sexually harassed and then was refused promotion for complaining.

Then there are 17 more payouts in the six-figure category, including four this year. The fourth-largest sum in the past six years came in February when the city settled $ 613,919 with Daniel O’Connell’s Sons, a Holyoke company that claimed Boston had not paid it for the extra work it was doing. The company had performed at the request of the city on what would become the Eliot K-8 School in the North End.

According to the settlement agreement, the city’s utilities department also had to hand over an additional $ 390,000 that it had withheld while the contract dispute unfolded.

Typically, settlement agreements also include both parties waiving any claims to sue on the matter. They also normally state that the city denies any responsibility or wrongdoing.

This was the case for another high amount this year when the city moved with the Regis family to Brighton following allegations that Boston police broke into their apartment in the middle of the night, pushed and handcuffed several limbs – to realize it. was the wrong apartment as the number on their “no-knock” search warrant.

The city paid the family of five $ 500,000 in March to close a federal lawsuit, and the agreement the city signed says Boston “expressly denies any wrongdoing” and that the settlement is simply meant to avoid costs. future of pending litigation. Of the lawsuits since 2016, 20 like this one involve “Civil Rights – Police”, resulting in payments of just under $ 1.9 million.

Fourteen of the 300+ payments during this period came from job applications and 13 from discrimination claims, including allegations of discrimination based on sex and race.

Other significant payments this year included more than $ 196,000 made to GF Mackin Construction after the company claimed it had a contract to make repairs underway for the Boston School District – which allegedly stopped paying them. for the works.

There is also a case that was before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination in which the city paid firefighter Sheila Leahy $ 155,000 this year after she alleged sexual harassment in a lawsuit that dates back several years.

Judgments are rare, as both sides often attempt to settle to avoid paying for years of trials and trials – and try to avoid the unpredictability of handing matters over to a judge or jury. But in addition to Gavin’s, the town lost another this year, having to pay Jeffrey McMahon $ 77,000 after courts found the Neighborhood Development Department had bypassed him on the assessment of the cooperative unit he had through an agreement with the city.

Most of the settlements are insurance claims, with the big companies taking the city to court in cases Boston doesn’t pay them. These usually stem from allegations that a city-owned car hit someone or someone injured themselves on city property.

For example, Boston agreed in February to pay a woman $ 500 after saying someone crashed a city car into her vehicle at the intersection of Blue Hill Avenue and the American Legion Highway. Safety Insurance was looking for a little more than double that amount, but the city was unwilling to reimburse, the company said, and they eventually settled down.

In a strange case this year, the city reports winning a dollar in a case in which someone sued the zoning appeal board for refusing certain proposed work on a house’s patio. There was no further information on this provision immediately available.

The city is setting aside a few million dollars a year assuming it will have to shell out some of it. This fiscal year – from last July to next June – the budget includes $ 5 million for settlements and judgments against the city, according to a spokeswoman for Mayor Michelle Wu.

The actual total payments from year to year vary widely, depending on when the relatively rare and relatively large settlements or judgments arrive, the data shows.

The online trial court case search shows 528 cases with “City of Boston” as accused that remain open. The Federal Court search counts nine more.

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