The Town of Amherst has won millions of dollars after years fighting the State Insurance Fund over an accident at a town-owned building.The suit goes back to a worker for a roofing company falling off the top of the Saint Mary of the Angels Motherhouse in Amherst State Park in 2002. Peter Bissell was partially paralyzed and sued. The town was hit up for $23 million counting interest and a judge issuing a larger verdict under the state's Scaffold Law.
The town's insurance carrier paid $10 million, but Amherst had to come up with $13 million when the insurance fund wouldn't pay. Supervisor Dr. Barry Weinstein says the town won after a long bargaining session Monday.
"We are collecting $17,794,782.90. This goes to the Town of Amherst," Weinstein said Tuesday.
The town's insurance carrier won back $10 million of the $31 million paid by the State Insurance Fund and the town and the town's carrier are fighting over an additional $3 million.
Weinstein says the town operates differently now. He says the town also has more on-site inspectors on the town payroll to monitor construction and repair projects to ensure safety.
"We are much more careful allowing vendors on our property without insurance," he says. "We always say to ourselves, this could be another Bissell if they get hurt."
Weinstein says the money will restore the town's battered insurance fund and its reserves and allow property tax cuts for the next several years.
