Uninsured Lake Worth Beach to appeal $7 million verdict
City has no insurance to cover the costs after drawn-out case closes in favor of ex-officer Joseph Viera.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story initially was published on Monday and a short version appeared in Tuesday morning’s Stet newsletter. We’re emailing it out today in case you missed it.
After more than a decade of litigation, former Lake Worth Beach police officer Joseph Viera this month convinced a jury to order the city to pay him $7.1 million for cheating him out of benefits he deserved after being seriously injured while chasing a suspect in May 2000.
While city officials vowed to appeal the eye-popping verdict, if they lose, Viera’s win could cost Lake Worth Beach taxpayers dearly.
The city has no insurance to cover the cost of the verdict, said attorney Daniel Lustig, who represented Viera in the successful legal battle.
That means taxpayers will be on the hook for the award, which is about 16% of the city’s $44 million proposed general fund budget.
City Manager Carmen Davis didn’t return several phone calls for comment on the possible impact of the verdict. But, recent events show the city is hardly flush with cash.
Commissioners this year spent months in an ugly battle with the owner of the popular Benny’s on the Beach restaurant, insisting he wasn’t paying enough to rent the city-owned building on the pier.
And 10 years after it closed its Olympic-sized beachfront pool, it is still struggling to figure out whether to pay an estimated $16 million to renovate it or just let it remain, as Mayor Betty Resch put it, “a giant concrete hole.”
Lustig and attorney Michael Pike, who also represented Viera, said the city has only itself to blame for the multimillion-dollar verdict.
“Mr. Viera negotiated a great deal for himself in 2018 and the city simply didn’t want to honor it,” Pike said.
For failing to honor what was supposed to be a settlement agreement, the jury ordered the city to pay Viera $6.1 million. It tacked on another $1 million, finding that the city violated a Florida law that requires governments to continue to provide health coverage to police, their spouses and their minor children if an on-the-job injury makes it impossible for them to work.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office took over the small department in 2008. As Viera’s employer, the city was obligated to provide him insurance.
Viera, 57, who now lives in Colorado, said he has spent the last 23 years in an endless cycle of doctor’s visits and surgeries.
Seven months after he injured his back when he fell off a wall while chasing a suspect, his cruiser was struck by a car while he was on his way to investigate reports of a fight. Dozens of operations followed, he said.
“Most of my spine has been fused. I’ve got severe nerve damage,” he said after the verdict. “My spinal cord was damaged, my neck was fractured, both hips, both knees, my shoulder. I’ve got paralysis in areas of my body.”
His physical pain was exacerbated by the ongoing battles with the city.
“Having to fight your employer for your rights, I never felt like I retired,” he said. “It’s been an ongoing battle.”
From the start, city officials made it clear they didn’t believe Viera was seriously injured.
During a 2016 court hearing, attorney Glen Torcivia, who was then representing the city, accused Viera of “milking the system.”
“He injured his knee in a car accident. There is no catastrophic injury. You know, this is not some brave officer who faced down a gunman,” Torcivia said. “No, he got hurt in a car accident.”
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Cheryl Caracuzzo chastised Torcivia for his crass assessment of Viera’s claims, but she ruled against the former officer. She threw out Viera’s lawsuit, ruling that he waited too long to sue the city; the statute of limitations had expired.
Her decision was overturned by the 4th District Court of Appeal. It ruled that the city was obligated to provide Viera health insurance coverage. But, it left it up to a circuit court judge to work out the details.
Instead, city officials and Viera agreed to settle. City officials insisted they only agreed to provide Viera, his wife and minor children with health insurance. But, Viera insisted that the agreement required it to provide him the same benefits as regular city workers “equal to or greater than the Director of Human Resources.”
The disagreement set the stage for this month’s weeklong trial.
Pike and Lustig said the wording of the agreement was clear. In addition to medical, dental and vision coverage, the city agreed to provide Viera and his family with life and accidental death insurance along with counseling services through the employee assistance program, they said.
The jury agreed. Viera’s damages ballooned to nearly $7.1 million because the jury found the city should pay “special damages” for failing to live up to its promises and for violating state law.
While the prospect of an appeal looms, Viera and his wife, Lynne, said the jury trial gave them the opportunity to publicly explain the city’s failure to provide for one of its former officers.
“We’re relieved that his story was able to be told, that there is the ability to continue to care for him, and that hopefully we don’t have to keep fighting this,” Lynne Viera said.
For Viera, who said he would have liked to have been able to remain on the force, the verdict brought unexpected relief. “I actually was able to call out 10-7,” he said, using the police code for out of service.
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