The City of Ansonia will offer up to $75,000 to settle six worker compensation claims and several labor grievances with James Hooker, a public works employee who retired last year.
Aldermen voted unanimously June 9 to authorize the city’s lawyer to write the offer. It could be approved at the July Aldermen meeting.
Last week Hooker referred a reporter to his lawyer, Laura Mooney, of West Hartford-based Morrissey, Morrissey, & Mooney, a law firm that specializes in personal injury and workers’ compensation cases.
She did not return calls for comment.
Well Known Worker
Hooker, 53, retired from the city’s public works department last December, after working there 26 years. He was earning $25.44 per hour at the time — $51,625 in the last full year of work before he retired.
He was suspended without pay for 30 days in 2012 after taking a snow plow from a junk heap at the public works complex and selling it for scrap. Hooker was initially charged with a low-level larceny offense, but it was dropped after a judge granted him accelerated rehabilitation, a special form of probation.
According to a warrant, Hooker told police that supervisors at the DPW were OK with employees selling scrap metal for private gain.
Hooker was also one of several city employees who received car tax receipts from former city tax collector Bridget Bostic.
The receipts said Hooker had paid car taxes on three of his six vehicles — when, in fact, he had not. The documentation enabled Hooker and the others to renew the registrations on their vehicles even though they owed local taxes.
Bostic resigned after a Valley Indy story exposed the practice.
The Claims
According to documents, Hooker was hurt six times since 2004 while working for the city.
The dates and injuries:
- March 19, 2004: injury to the right leg, ankle and knee
- June 16, 2006: injury to the right shin
- July 31, 2007: hernia
- June 29, 2010: right shin
- Dec. 4, 2012: lower back and right knee
- Feb. 18, 2014: right ankle
The injuries entitled Hooker to benefits under the Workers’ Compensation Act. More details about the incidents were not available.
The claims have not necessarily been pending since 2004. They’re intertwined, with newer injury claims connected to and reviving older claims.
At the time of his retirement, Hooker also had a few labor grievances pending, according to Ansonia Corporation Counsel John Marini.
Negotiations
According to paperwork on file at the Bridgeport offices of the state Workers’ Compensation Commission, the city and Hooker have been discussing a settlement since at least last September.
The Aldermen also had a series of closed-door executive sessions on the subject, something allowed by law if the discussion involves pending litigation or a specific person.
After a brief executive session June 9, the Aldermen authorized Marini to present Hooker’s lawyer with the $75,000 settlement offer.
The video below shows the Aldermen voting on the matter. The story continues after the video.
Marini would not discuss the specifics of Hooker’s claims or labor grievances last week because they have not yet been settled.
“The Board of Aldermen is essentially putting out an offer,” he said. “They’ve approved me to negotiate a final offer to settle everything.”
Marini said that in general, it can be prudent for a municipality to settle worker’s compensation claims sooner rather than later.
“With workers’ comp, the city could essentially be on the hook for someone’s entire life,” Marini said. “If someone has an injury that’s work-related, three years from then, 30 years from then, if that condition is still giving them a problem, if they’re still getting treatment for it and it’s linked back to the old injury, the city is still on the hook. There’s a long-term exposure.”
The $75,000 offer would settle the claims immediately and protect the city in the long run.
“Sometimes it just makes sense in the long run to enter into what’s called a stipulation to cut off the future liability for the city,” Marini said.
Details, Past Offers
Mooney, Hooker’s lawyer, originally offered to settle with Ansonia for just shy of $140,000.
The total included $29,610 in lost compensation for vacation, personal, and sick days that Mooney said were “inappropriately” deducted from Hooker when he was out of work injured from December 2012 to June 2013, as well as $25,000 for “future mileage and co-pay reimbursement claims.”
Then a lawyer representing the city replied to Mooney with a counteroffer — $40,000.
Since then, the two sides met in April and May for “informal” settlement discussions, before settling on the $75,000 offer.
The settlement proposal, if accepted by Hooker and his lawyer, would not affect any of Hooker’s retirement benefits.
Employees of Ansonia’s public works department who retire before turning 65 are allowed to stay on the city’s medical insurance for 10 years, provided they pay 20 percent of the premium cost for themselves, 50 percent for their spouses, and 100 percent for children. DPW retirees do not receive a city pension.
For More Info
The Workers’ Compensation Act mandates that employers pay employees for treatment, lost wages, and other benefits as a result of on-the-job injuries.
Click here for more information about how workers’ compensation works in Connecticut, from the state’s Workers Compensation Commission.
The state Judicial Branch also has a web page with answers to some workers’ compensation questions.
