Local News in Brief : Laguna Beach : City to Pay Diving Victim Lifetime Stipend
The city of Laguna Beach, through its insurance carrier, Mead Reinsurance, has agreed to pay a lifetime stipend of $3,250 a month to a technician from Brea Neuropsychiatric Hospital who was paralyzed from the neck down after diving into the ocean at Diver’s Cove.
The settlement, reached Tuesday, also guarantees that Paul Dobyns will continue to receive medical benefits from his employer’s insurance company, Great American Insurance Co., for as long as he lives, Dobyns’ attorney, Byron M. Rabin, said. Rabin estimated the insurance benefits at $1.5 million to $4.3 million.
As part of the settlement, Mead Reinsurance also agreed to pay Dobyns $200,000 for his legal expenses and to pay Great American Insurance Co. $200,000 to partially reimburse it for medical benefits Dobyns received before the settlement, Rabin said.
In his suit against the city, filed in 1983, Dobyns accused the city of negligence for not properly warning people against diving at Diver’s Cove.
A state law that took effect Jan. 1, 1988, makes coastal cities immune from lawsuits such as this one. But since Dobyns filed his case before the law took effect, it was not disqualified.
Dobyns, 36, now lives in Fullerton and must be attended by a round-the-clock nurse, according to Rabin.
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