Lawyers Net $1M in Shooting Settlement
"This matter has been the subject of the utmost public interest in Chardon, Ohio." Tim Grendell
The lawyers representing the estates of the Chardon High School students killed in the Feb. 27, 2012, shooting will take home more than $1.050 million in attorney’s fees under a partial settlement reached in a wrongful death case filed against shooter T.J. Lane, his paternal and maternal grandparents, parents and uncle.
The estates of Daniel Parmertor, Russell King Jr. and Demetrius Hewlin each settled for $889,583.33, less attorney’s fees at 40 percent and case expenses, according to an Entry Approving Settlement and Distribution of Wrongful Death and Survival Claims released following a Geauga County Probate Court hearing last Tuesday.
Notice of the partial settlement agreement and terms were filed under seal with the probate court in early April, according to court records following a May 20 hearing on the families’ request to keep the filings secret.
Even though the lawsuit was filed in Lake County, the three estates are being probated in Geauga County and state law requires the probate court to approve settlements of wrongful death cases and the division of funds.
The Geauga County Maple Leaf learned of the secret filings last month and asked the probate court to allow public access to them.
It argued the probate court is a public court that is open to the public and only the most compelling reasons should ever justify non-disclosure of judicial records.
While Judge Tim Grendell denied the newspaper’s right to intervene in the probate case, he agreed the risk of harm to the families’ privacy rights did not outweigh the public’s interest in maximum public access to the documents.
“The court is cognizant that the probate court is a public court, that it is open to the public and that is the presumption,” Grendell said. “This matter has been the subject of the utmost public interest in Chardon, Ohio.”
The judge said he understood the strategic and personal desires of the attorneys to keep the settlement private, but explained “the privacy of the settlement is in conflict with the doctrine of an open, public probate court, with some caveats.”
Those caveats included protecting against the public disclosure of the names of expert witnesses as well as amounts reserved for future litigation costs.
“But the court ultimately feels that this has been a matter of public interest from day one, that public awareness of the fact that those responsible for juveniles and who provide juveniles access to weapons without proper supervision bear a financial liability for the tortious actions of those juveniles, and that this is a matter of important public interest and an important lesson to be learned from this unfortunate event,” Grendell ruled.
The families of the three dead students had filed their wrongful death lawsuit in the Lake County Court of Common Pleas on Feb. 27, 2013 — one year after Lane shot and killed Parmertor, King and Hewlin inside the high school cafeteria.
Also injured in the shooting were then 17-year-old Nicholas Walczak, who was left paralyzed, and 17-year-old Nate Mueller and 18-year-old Joy Rickers, who both suffered minor injuries.
Separate declaratory judgment actions were filed in federal and state court to determine insurance coverage under the homeowners insurance policies of grandparents Jack and Carol Nolan, and Michelle and Thomas Lane.
Liberty Mutual Insurance Company filed the federal court action, which resulted in a settlement with the Lanes, who were covered under two homeowners policies, one with Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and another with Travelers Insurance.
Nationwide Insurance Company filed its action in the Geauga County Court of Common Pleas. It resulted in a settlement with the Nolans.
“The gross settlement in the federal court action was $3.5 million,” said attorney Craig Bashein, who represents the families of the deceased students, during an April 22 probate court hearing to approve legal fees.
The three estates equally shared in $2.5 million of the settlement funds with the remaining money allocated to Walczak and “two other individuals who received lesser wounds” in the shooting, Bashein told Grendell.
The Geauga County action was settled for $225,000 and divided equally among the three estates and Walczak, Bashein said.
The total recovery for each of the estates was $889,583.33.
“There was a 40 percent contingency fee award of $355,833.33 (per estate) that we’ve filed for court approval on,” Bashein told Grendell April 22, plus expenses for each individual estate, ranging from $5,837 to $9,481.
Each of the families and Walczak — who is represented by attorney John O’Neil — also agreed to hold in escrow a portion of the settlement amount for future litigation expenses relative to a pending action against Chardon Schools, Lake Academy, Lake County Educational Service Center and others, Bashein said.
That lawsuit was filed in the Lake County Court of Common Pleas on Feb. 27, 2014 — the two-year anniversary of the shooting.
It claims Chardon school administrators provided inadequate protection for teachers and students when Lane fired 10 shots in the cafeteria.
The families also allege the shooting was foreseeable and preventable, and that the district had been warned about the need for additional security.
The lawsuit further claims officials at Lake Academy, the alternative school that Lane attended since his first day of high school, did not warn others of Lane’s mental instability.
The suit was filed hours after King’s father, Russell Sr., was found dead in his Chardon Township home. Geauga County Coroner Robert Coleman said the cause of death was “acute intoxication by the combined effects of heroin and ethanol.”
During the April 22 hearing, Grendell asked each family member whether they approved of the amount they were receiving in the settlement. Dina and Bob Parmertor, Jeannie King, Phyllis Ferguson and Tim Hewlin all answered in the affirmative.
He then asked each family whether they understood their lawyers were going to take 40 percent of their total award as legal fees.
Again, each family said they were in agreement on the legal fees.
In the case of Ferguson and Tim Hewlin, the judge said their net settlement funds will be deposited into an interest-bearing account overseen by attorney Jeff Orondorf, who was appointed successor administrator of Demetrius Hewlin’s estate.
On July 1, Grendell will conduct a hearing to determine whether Ferguson and Hewlin should each participate in the settlement funds. Ferguson’s attorney has claimed Tim Hewlin abandoned his son and terminated his parental rights.
