Beall v Fleming
Plaintiffs in civil rights suit against Fleming, McGill & Old Guard Trustees forego legitimate damages claims to protect CUSD
Aug 13, 2009 Filed in: Peabody,
Timothy
Peabody is Plaintiffs’ counsel and Feldhake is counsel for the Joint Powers Authority that insures CUSD. In Beall vs. Fleming, parents who had been denied their constitutional and other rights sued those responsible, including James Fleming, Susan McGill, the seven old guard Fleming trustees and CUSD, for damages of nearly $50 million. When Plaintiffs learned that the JPA was not obligated to defend or indemnify CUSD due to the intentional nature of the offenses committed by the individual defendants, and that CUSD would be forced by the individual defendants to defend and indemnify them at great expense to the district, the Plaintiffs offered to settle the case for a drastically reduced amount with the JPA to prevent financial harm to CUSD. So, on the recommendation of defense counsel and by agreement of all the parties, the case was settled and the JPA paid the Plaintiffs and Plaintiffs’ counsel a total settlement of approximately $178,000.