Blue Thanksgiving for Durham & Duke as Legal Woes Continue!

This was not the week to be thankful at Durham's City Hall nor at Duke University as trouble in their defense of the Duke Lacrosse Lawsuits continues to surface.

First was the reply by the plaintiffs to the City of Durham

PLAINTIFFS’ BRIEF OPPOSING THE CITY OF DURHAM’S
MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT

This motion by the brilliant legal team under the guidance of Sullivan, Rudolf, Scheck, and Emery eviscerates the City of Durham's ridiculous proposition that somehow the City is not fully financially responsible for their actions because;

"The City of Durham argues, based upon a particular sentence in its insurance Policies, that it does not have insurance coverage for Plaintiffs’ state-law claims and, thus, is entitled to governmental immunity."

It states that the City needs to re-read their policy again and challenges the legal assumptions with an overwhelming amount of case history in North Carolina.

In addition the motion points out how much work the legal defense team has put into the defense of what they are now claiming has immunity

"C. The City Spends Its Retained Limit and Triggers Its Excess Policies

According to published reports, the City Defendants have generated more than $1.2 million in legal bills in this and two other cases. See Davant Rule 56(f) Aff. ¶ 4.

This legal work included the drafting and submission of more than 300 pages of briefing (out of 887 pages to date) devoted exclusively to the state-law claims in the three cases.

Yet, the Assistant City Attorney supervising these cases told the Durham Herald-Sun that the City was responsible only for the first $500,000 of the City Defendants’ legal bills, and that the City’s insurer was reimbursing the City for all amounts over $500,000. See id. The City has paid “$729,350 of [the legal bills], but the city is in line to get $229,350 of that back from the American International Group.” Id. “AIG will pay for the city’s defense until the bill hits Durham’s $5 million coverage limit, Assistant City Attorney Kim Grantham said.” Id. The City did not distinguish between state and federal claims in describing its insurance coverage, and instead indicated that the first $500,000 of defense costs had triggered insurance coverage "

11 Million in Legal Fees Spent by Duke University

On the second front Duke University filed a lawsuit against National Union Insurance which is a wholly own subsidiary of AIG. They seek money to pay for legal fees already spent.

The News Observer reported;

Duke sues insurer over lacrosse settlement

Duke University is suing its insurance company for refusing to pay any of the settlement costs for the Duke Lacrosse case.

In federal court papers filed Monday, Duke is seeking financial relief from National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh, an affiliate of insurance giant AIG… N&O

The Durham Herald-Sun using private sources explained further the magnitude of Duke’s problem.

"Sources close to the case say National Union is refusing to pay because it believes its policy is capped at $5 million for legal expenses and Duke has submitted legal bills -- alone -- of about $11 million to date, and that Duke refuses to accept the $5 million cap"

Looking back

LieStoppers wish Reade, Collin, Dave and their Families a Happy Thanksgiving.

We hope it gives them some degree of comfort to watch the City of Durham and Duke University worry about how they are going to pay these legal fees. They left those three families alone to struggle with their legal defense bills for a crime which they knew never happened.

Karma can indeed be sweet!

"Oh what a tangled web we weave,When first we practise to deceive!"
Sir Walter Scott