Lawsuit Settlements by City of L.A. Increased 28% in ’99

The amount paid by the city of Los Angeles for lawsuits increased 28% to $60.5 million last year, with much of the increase attributed to six police cases, the city attorney’s office reported Monday.

The Los Angeles Police Department had the largest litigation bill by far: Payouts in judgments and settlements tripled from $10.2 million in 1998 to $32 million last year, according to the annual report.

Major settlements last year included $3.7 million paid to Cal State Fullerton wrestling coach Ardeshir Asgari, who alleged that the LAPD falsified the circumstances of a narcotics arrest for which he was later acquitted.

The report was issued on the eve of a City Council vote to pay the largest personal injury settlement in city history: $19 million to a woman injured in an accident involving a city maintenance truck.

Several council members said they fear the current police scandal in the Rampart Division means things will only get worse.

“Not only do I have concern about what the city has been paying out in judgments, but I am also concerned about what is going to happen to the city’s liability because of fallout from the Rampart problems,” said Councilman Mike Feuer, chairman of the council’s Budget and Finance Committee.

Feuer cited one recent judgment for $850,000 in a case where officers went to the wrong house for an arrest.

“We need to be doing more to address risk management,” Feuer said.

City lawyers called the statistic a fluke caused by a handful of large judgments last year, including a $9.9-million payout to Pedro Espinoza, who was left paralyzed when he was struck in a crosswalk by a police car in 1998.

“It just happened there were six cases involving the Police Department that totaled more than $20 million,” said Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office.

Police Chief Bernard C. Parks is concerned and hopes that a risk management unit he created last year will help reduce liability, said spokesman Cmdr. Dave Kalish.

“We had seen decreases in the last five years, and it appears this spike in 1999 was caused by a few large awards,” Kalish said.

Other police lawsuits settled last year include:

* $950,000 paid to a tattoo shop employee in Van Nuys who was shot by police when they mistook him for an assailant who had attacked his boss.

* $3.25 million paid for a 1994 incident in Northridge, where an LAPD officer shot a resident of a boarding house for the developmentally disabled. The resident allegedly had threatened him with a knife.

* $1.4 million paid to a former LAPD Explorer Scout who alleged that an officer molested her.

The second-largest amount of payouts last year was by the Bureau of Engineering, which was responsible for $11 million in judgments and settlements, many caused by damage suffered to private property from El Nino rains.

The Bureau of Street Maintenance was responsible for $6.6 million in judgments and settlements last year, the third highest amount.