Hit by a State Employee? $2 Million Court of Claims Settlement Shows Your Options

Published September 25, 2012 · Verdicts & Settlements

A state van drifts across the center line of a two-lane county road and hits you head-on. The driver is on the job for the State of Ohio. Who pays for your injuries, where do you file, and is a serious recovery realistic against the state? A settlement approved this month in Columbus answers the last question, and this post answers the other two.

The Bush settlement, as reported by Court News Ohio

According to Court News Ohio, the Supreme Court of Ohio's news service, the Ohio Court of Claims on September 13, 2012 approved a $2 million settlement between Elliott Bush and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in Bush v. Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Case No. 2011-13320.

The facts reported are these. On January 7, 2010, a Department of Rehabilitation and Correction employee crossed over the center line on County Road 6 in Knox County and struck Mr. Bush's car head-on. Mr. Bush suffered nearly 30 injuries, including numerous fractures, which the report described as catastrophic. His complaint, filed December 28, 2011, alleged carelessness and negligence by the state employee, including driver inattention and driving too fast for the conditions, and cited the uncertain future of his medical expenses and the life-changing circumstances for his wife. The $2 million is being paid by the department.

Our office did not handle this case. We write about it because it illustrates, better than any explanation of the statutes, that a claim against the State of Ohio is a real claim with real value when the injuries are serious and the fault is clear.

Why the case was in the Court of Claims

When the person who hurts you is working for the State of Ohio, your case does not go to the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court the way an ordinary car crash case would. Under R.C. 2743.02(A)(1), the state has waived its immunity from liability and consented to be sued in a special court, the Ohio Court of Claims, with its liability decided "in accordance with the same rules of law applicable to suits between private parties," subject to the limits in that chapter. The Court of Claims sits in Columbus, hears cases against the state from everywhere in Ohio, and decides them without a jury.

Several features of the system catch people by surprise:

The state is the defendant, not the employee. R.C. 2743.02(E) makes the state the only defendant in an original action in the Court of Claims. The statute also provides that filing in the Court of Claims waives any claim you might have against the individual employee for the same act, unless the court finds the employee was acting manifestly outside the scope of his job or with malicious purpose, in bad faith, or in a wanton or reckless manner. For an ordinary negligent-driving case, that trade is a good one: the state's treasury stands behind the judgment, and you are not chasing a government employee's personal assets.

Collateral benefits reduce the award. R.C. 2743.02(D) provides that recoveries against the state are reduced by insurance proceeds, disability awards, and other collateral benefits the claimant receives or is entitled to receive. In an ordinary case against a private driver, Ohio's rules on collateral benefits are different and generally more favorable to the injured person. This is one of the reasons a claim against the state needs to be evaluated by someone who knows how the Court of Claims will count the numbers.

There is a two-year deadline. R.C. 2743.16(A) requires actions against the state to be filed no later than two years after the cause of action accrues, or within any shorter period that applies to similar suits between private parties. The crash in the Bush case was in January 2010, and the complaint was filed in December 2011, inside the two-year window. Our post on Ohio's two-year deadline for injury claims explains how these deadlines work generally; for a state defendant, the Court of Claims statute controls.

State universities and hospitals have their own rules. Claims against state universities and their medical centers go to the Court of Claims as well, with some additional limits set out in R.C. 2743.02 and related statutes.

What the $2 million figure tells you about value

A settlement is a negotiated number, not a jury's verdict, and the state agreed to it with its own risks in mind. Even so, the figure says something about how serious injury claims are valued when the facts line up:

• Clear liability. A vehicle that crosses the center line and hits an oncoming car head-on is, in nearly every case, the vehicle at fault. There was no comparative-fault argument to drive the number down.
• Catastrophic, documented injury. Nearly 30 separate injuries, numerous fractures, and an uncertain future for medical care create large, provable economic damages before pain and suffering is considered.
• A spouse's loss. The complaint's reference to life-changing circumstances for Mr. Bush's wife reflects a loss-of-consortium claim, which is a separate component of damages in Ohio.
• The forum. The Court of Claims decides cases without a jury, which removes some of the uncertainty that drives private insurers to settle, and still the case resolved for $2 million.

We have written before about the Court of Claims in a very different setting, the prison football injury verdict in 2010. The common thread is that the court applies ordinary negligence law to the state's conduct, and when the state's employees are careless, the state pays.

What to do if a state vehicle hits you

1. Identify the agency. State vehicles are usually marked, and the crash report will list the driver's employer. Department of Transportation trucks, Highway Patrol cruisers, university vehicles, and corrections vans are all state vehicles. (City, county, and township vehicles are a different system, with its own immunity rules, which we cover on our page about claims against the government in Ohio.)
2. Get treated and keep every record. The state's lawyers will scrutinize medical records the same way an insurance company does.
3. Do not assume the state will "take care of it." The Department of Administrative Services has a risk-management office, and there is a pre-suit process for some claims, but a fair result generally requires counsel who knows the Court of Claims.
4. Watch the calendar. Two years passes quickly when you are recovering from fractures. Filing late ends the claim.

What this means for you

A crash caused by a state employee is not a dead end. The state has consented to be sued, the Court of Claims applies the same negligence rules that govern any other driver, and the Bush settlement shows that serious injuries produce serious recoveries. The procedure is different, the deadline is firm, and the collateral-benefit rules require careful handling, which is why these cases should be in a lawyer's hands early.