Lawsuits and claims for damages are part of the cost of doing business for any city government.

When there’s a multimillion-dollar settlement over environmental cleanup or a major police screw-up, it makes headlines. But often overlooked are the hundreds of “routine” claims filed by local residents whose homes are flooded when a city sewer line backs up, whose cars are scraped by rumbling garbage trucks, whose alignments are jarred by potholes, or who are sent sprawling by an uneven sidewalk.

From 2006 to 2008, the city paid out more than $1 million for these routine claims, a News Tribune review of records found. The newspaper’s review was not comprehensive, but examined those records that were available in electronic format – roughly 75 percent.

The analysis of the 376 claims showed:

 • Garbage trucks were behind about half of the 142 driving-related payouts, accounting for $148,000 out of $360,000 in damages.

 • Sidewalk trip-and-falls had the largest requests for damages and the highest average among routine payouts. They were also the most likely to come in under a lawyer’s letterhead.

 • Fall payouts averaged $11,804 each, compared with $2,555 for crashes, $2,917 for sewer problems and $595 for potholes and other street-related damage.

According to city figures, 1,182 claims were filed between 2006 and 2008. Of those, the city has paid damages on 435 of them so far – all but 19 were settled before reaching the court system.

Those 19 court cases resulted in $3,554,532 in damages (with a single case accounting for $3 million).

Of the remaining 416 claims, 206 were settled for less than $1,000, while 25 were above $10,000. Records show 570 claims were denied or closed without payment and about 100 were still active.

The city has employed various efforts to cut down on claims – including routine sewer repairs and more aggressive pothole patching – but some level is unavoidable, officials said.

Figuring out when to pay and how much is done by analysts and lawyers with the city’s legal staff, said deputy city attorney Jean Homan, who oversees the claims process.

“Every case is evaluated on its own facts,” she said in a recent interview. “In some cases, we think there isn’t enough evidence to establish legal fault, but in front of a jury it could come out the other way.”

CITIES ARE ATTRACTIVE TARGETS

In some cases the city is clearly on the hook.

“That’s when we’re going to try to settle for reasonable damages,” Homan said. “We try to get out as early in the process as possible. Often times people’s views of reasonable damages and the city’s view are different – and that can lead to litigation.”

Dan Heid, who serves as Auburn’s city attorney and who is a past president of the Washington State Association of Municipal Attorneys, said the types and amounts of claims Tacoma was seeing are not at all unusual.

“It’s all pretty much the same,” he said.

Many of the claims are legitimate, Heid said, but cities also are attractive targets for some.

“People don’t always pay their bills, but cities generally do,” he said.

When Heid worked for Lakewood shortly after it incorporated, there was a suit in which a driver who was struck by another vehicle sued Lakewood, where the intersection was; Pierce County, which had previously maintained it; and Tacoma, which was responsible for the utility pole the car hit. The other driver appeared to be the one at fault, but the governments settled rather than risk a trial, he said.

WHEN TO PAY, WHEN TO FIGHT

Even if the city is skeptical of a particular claim, it can sometimes save money simply to pay it or offer a settlement early in the process rather than get drawn into a court case, Homan said.

For example, in 2006 the City of Tacoma paid $5.42 in damages to Janie M. Wallace of South 21st Street. Her stove caught fire, and firefighters scratched the paint on her refrigerator while moving the stove to unplug it. Wallace filed the claim to pay for paint to touch up her fridge.

“They shouldn’t have been so negligent and careless,” she said when reached by phone Friday.

Still, the claim process was hassle-free, she noted.

“We try to be very cognizant of taxpayer money,” Homan said. “Sometimes a claim is questionable, but we’d spend more money fighting about it. In a case like that, we’d say, ‘Let’s pay the $5.42 and not waste city resources fighting about it.’”

But there are other cases that are worth going to the mattresses over, even though taking a case to court can raise costs exponentially, she said.

For example, a recent claim involves a man who was arrested on suspicion of selling drugs and who was in the back of a police car when it was struck by another vehicle. The man is claiming he was not placed in a seat belt, though police reports and paramedics say otherwise.

“He’s asking for six figures – uh-uh, we’re taking it to a jury,” Homan said.

THE WORTH OF PAIN, SUFFERING

One of the thorniest areas for the city is claims involving personal injury. Unlike a car or a refrigerator, the value of the injured party’s pain and suffering is more nebulous, she said.

One woman, who has since died, according to public records, filed a $1.5 million claim against the city in 2007 for wrist injuries suffered in a sidewalk trip-and-fall in the 700 block of Sixth Avenue.

The city settled with her for $8,000, part of which likely went to the attorney who submitted the claim.

While the city paid an average of $11,800 in 19 sidewalk cases, the average damages asked for was nearly $225,000.

Another routine problem is damage caused by the sewer system backing up into homes.

The city paid out more than $274,000 over those three years to clean up such messes, the newspaper’s review found.

Last summer, for example, Penny Pershey, who lives on North Cheyenne Street, filed a claim for a sewer backup that flooded her basement. Her one-year-old hot water heater and furnace were ruined, as were her washer and dryer.

FACTORING IN NEGLIGENCE

Records show Pershey claimed damages of $16,507.56 and received $13,381.45. According to a letter she filed with her claim, “The city crew found that a piece of pipe was left in the larger pipe from a past fix. The piece had jammed, over time, into a position to stop the flow of liquid. My basement, being the lowest point in the block, became the dumping ground for all liquids.”

Homeowners can be paid for damages from infrastructure problems, but not if they are found to be negligent, said city spokeswoman Alicia Lawver. But the way tort laws are written, homeowners might be entitled to some reimbursement if they are only partly negligent, Homan said.

Tacoma budgets about $4 million annually to fix and replace parts of the sanitary sewer system, said senior environmental specialist Alan Aplin. That will fund the replacement of the entire 700 miles of the system every 70 years or so. Meanwhile, the city prioritizes replacement and rehab based on how old particular pipes are, what they’re made of and what condition they’re in.

During the dry season, maintenance workers also smoke-test about 10,000 homes and businesses to look for sewer pipes that are allowing stormwater in, which can overwhelm the system.

“If we see smoke coming up through a lawn or the parking strip, that indicates a break in the pipe,” Aplin said. “If smoke can get out, water can get in.”

MISHAPS ON THE ROAD

The other major category for routine claims stemmed from damage caused by city employees while they were driving.

Garbage trucks were the cause of most claims, followed by police cars and firetrucks.

All these vehicles, especially garbage trucks, are out driving around the city day-in and day-out, said Andy Torres, a manager with the city’s Public Works Department.

A lot of trash pickup is done in narrow alleys, which is where lumbering garbage trucks can run into trouble, he said.

That’s not much of a comfort to residents whose property gets damaged, however.

Chris Thal, who lives on South 59th Street, came home one day in January to find his RV severely damaged.

“It’s pretty cut and dry,” he said. “The garbage truck hit my motor home. The driver left the claw down.”

The city paid $11,400 to repair the RV. The claims process went well, Thal said, but he noted, “It was pretty inconvenient being without my motor home during the month it took them to fix it.”

Ian Demsky: 253-597-8872

ian.demsky@thenewstribune.com

BREAKDOWN

Here’s a closer look at The News Tribune’s review of claims made against the City of Tacoma that were paid out between 2006 and 2008.

Payouts reviewed: 376*

Cost: $5,879,442

Total driving-related: 142

Driving cost: $360,870

Involving garbage trucks: 72; $148,176

Involving police cars: 24; $99,699.76

Involving firetrucks: 18; $40,533

Involving unknown type of vehicle: 21; $55,641

Involving other city vehicles: 7; $16,821

Total sewer-related: 94

Sewer cost: $274,205

Total street damage to vehicles: 33

Street cost: $19,646

Total sidewalk trip-and-falls: 19

Sidewalk cost: $224,293

Total miscellaneous: 60

Miscellaneous cost: $1,743,705

Total police (nondriving): 5

Police cost: $3,235,755 **

Total improper impound: 10

Impound cost: $3,397

Total that could not be categorized: 13

N/A cost: $17,571

* The News Tribune reviewed the 376 claims that were available electronically. An additional 96 payouts were available only in paper format and not reviewed. Also, the payouts are current through mid-April; additional claims from that time period have been settled since then.

** Of that amount, $3 million was from a single claim that Tacoma police failed to properly investigate child abuse allegations. The full claim was for $7.6 million; the city’s “excess” insurer paid the remainder above the $3 million.