So will Dearborn taxpayers get left holding the bill for the more than $1.1 million in damages two former Dearborn district court employees were recently awarded by jurors?

It appears so.

In case you missed it, 19th District Court Judge Mark Somers who sits on the bench in Dearborn, had two separate juries in two different civil trials, award two former district count employees hundreds of thousands of dollars over claims they were fired in violation of Michigan law (one award was for $463,000, a second for $732,000).

A third trial for a third ex-employee, who has a whistle-blower lawsuit against Somers, is expected to begin next year.

In a column in Sunday’s Detroit Free Press, Brian Dickerson writes that a multitude of legal authorities and precedents say tax paying Dearborn residents will get hit with that tab, which likely will exceed $2 million with attorney fees and interest.

Dickerson writes that Dearborn city attorneys have taken the public position that the city, which was not a defendant, is not liable for any damages.

We will see how that position plays out in the coming months as “taxpayers and municipal insurers in Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, West Bloomfield and Southgate were left holding the bag when lawsuits against judges in their communities were settled in the plaintiffs’ favor,” Dickerson writes.

The Dickerson column is an interesting read because he points out that none of the judges in any of these lawsuits has “ever been removed from office, suspended or even publicly reprimanded by any disciplinary body.”

“Jurors have found the judges’ conduct — and their credibility as witnesses in their own defense — wanting.  But neither the Judicial Tenure Commission nor the Attorney Grievance Commission — the organizations responsible for policing the ethical conduct of judges and lawyers — concedes that those judges have done anything unethical.

“So much for holding the men and women who oversee Michigan’s courts to a higher standard,” Dickerson says.

For the complete Free Press column, click HERE.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 10th, 2011 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Around Town, City Hall. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.