On Tuesday afternoon, the Board of Supervisors approved a $3.3 million settlement for a cyclist struck by a city vehicle at the intersection of Valencia and 20th streets in November 2019.
The settlement is this year’s third multimillion dollar settlement for a non-fatal vehicle collision involving a city employee. These settlements stand out: The city paid out in 26 non-fatal vehicle collision settlements between 2018 through 2022, and these topped out at $850,000. A dozen of the settlements were for less than $100,000.
The City Attorney’s Office is opaque about the reasoning behind their settlement sums.
“We believe the proposed settlement is an appropriate resolution, given the inherent costs of continued litigation,” said Jen Kwart, director of communications and media relations for the City Attorney’s office, of the Valencia Street settlement.
“All of the discussions surrounding why a certain amount of money is awarded [are] confidential,” echoed Melissa Hernandez, a legislative aide for Supervisor Dean Preston, chair of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee, which approves settlements before they are voted on by all nine supervisors.
The two other vehicle settlements approved by the supes this year were for $3 million plus $33,607 in waived hospital fees for Jose Chavarria, and $7.5 million for Merrill Beth Ferguson. Chavarria was struck by an unmarked police vehicle while an officer was chasing him, leaving him in a coma for weeks with serious injuries, including skull and pelvic fractures, the removal of his kidney and part of his liver, and emotional and psychological injuries.
Ferguson, whose settlement was approved in March, suffered a traumatic brain injury and a jaw fracture requiring surgery.
The Valencia Street cyclist, Alexis Krup,allegedly suffered a debilitating mild traumatic brain injury from a collision with a Public Works pickup truck, which failed to signal before entering the bike lane to make a right turn. Documents from the case stated that these injuries will prevent Krup from working full-time after the next five years, will lead to significant loss of lifetime earning capacity, and will require future medical care.
Krup was a Ph.D student in Biomedical Sciences at University of California, San Francisco, at the time of their accident. Krup is now a postdoctoral fellow at Calico Life Sciences, an Alphabet-founded company researching the biology behind human aging.
Settlement sums are calculated by forensic economists, who take into account pain and suffering, past and future medical expenses, lost wages, and loss of future income, among other factors, said Joseph Breall, a personal injury attorney in San Francisco.
Breall represented the family members surviving Rui Xia Zhen, a 67-year-old caretaker of the elderly who was fatally struck by a Public Works truck in 2020. The supes approved a $2 million settlement for the family in 2021.
“The settlement will be lower for an older, low-wage earner,” said Breall, “because they don’t make a lot of money to begin with.”
“The devil’s in the details,” he added, saying that a 50-year-old doctor would likely receive a larger sum than a 20-year-old, as the future earnings of the latter are unclear.
“Each case is kind of its own little universe,” concurred Kathleen Morris, a professor of law at Golden Gate University who previously worked as an attorney at the City Attorney’s Office for nine years.
“Sometimes a case can be worth millions even when there are no deaths because, for example, the plaintiff is relatively young and high-earning, and has been injured badly enough that future damages and medical bills are expected to be massive,” she added.
These same metrics are considered when determining settlements for other cases involving personal injury and wrongful death, said Breall.
It is unclear whether this year’s high settlements are indicative of a trend toward larger payouts or simply involved victims whose personal circumstances resulted in higher dollar figures.
But having a car accident lawyer seems to help: An unlitigated vehicle collision claim has been assigned to the Government Audit and Oversight Committee for approval — for a proposed settlement of $39,223.
So: Rich people get bigger settlements from the City than poor people. Sounds fair.
These types of cases (personal injury, or PI) are almost universally handled by attorneys on a contingency basis. That means that the attorney is NOT paid unless there’s a recovery, and the payment is made from the recovery. Of course, a rich person could hire a lawyer and pay her on an hourly rate. Those must be rare as the cost of paying your own lawyer could be astronomical.
In the sense that they can afford better lawyers, perhaps.
But then it takes more money to move the needle if you are rich.
Alexis Krup asks that any media/legal or other inquiries please be directed to her attorney, Michael Stephenson and his firm, Bay Area Bicycle Law, P.C. (and not to her or her family directly). at MS@BABLPC dot com, or (415) 466-8717.
Unmarked PD vehicles are not supposed to pursue anyone unless a serious crime is involved. If it’s just a traffic issue they’re required to call a black and white right away. And now, a lot of the traffic stuff has gone away. So the settlement was on the high side for the supes probably cuz of the PD’s violation of their own rules. But they are secretive about all of that, right? Maybe the new captain can remind those unmarkeds about the rules? Maybe not.
Personally if I were on that jury I would have given Chavarria nothing, since it was his criminal behavior that led to the events of his accident.
Krup, on the other hand, deserves the money.
Do you know what “crime” he committed? In short, do you know anything more than that he was pursued by a cop?