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ISD 696 liability capped at $1.5 million in bus crash verdict

Jury awards $28.6 million to woman paralyzed in 2009 traffic accident

Keith Vandervort
Posted 2/8/17

ELY - An Itasca County jury awarded $28.6 million to a Marble, Minn., woman who was paralyzed when an Ely Public School District bus crashed into the car in which she was a passenger.

The jury …

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ISD 696 liability capped at $1.5 million in bus crash verdict

Jury awards $28.6 million to woman paralyzed in 2009 traffic accident

Posted

ELY - An Itasca County jury has awarded $28.6 million to Paige Anderson, a Marble resident who was paralyzed back in 2009 when an Ely School District bus crashed into the car in which she was a passenger. Yet state law caps the school district's liability in the case at $1.5 million.

The jury found the Ely School District and bus driver Jay Poshak to be 10 percent at fault and Hailey Salo, the then-18-year-old Grand Rapids-area resident who drove the car in which Anderson was paralyzed, to be 90 percent at fault.

Tim O’Connor, the attorney for the Ely school district and bus driver Jay Poshak, told the Timberjay this week that state statute limits the total amount paid out.

“The school district is covered by that state statute that limits their liability, and because of the insurance coverage, the most the school district and the bus driver is limited to is $1.5 million,” O’Connor said.

“The award could have been as low as $500,000 if the district didn’t carry an extra $1 million in coverage,” he said. “The statute limits the damage claim to $500,000 but the school district purchased an excess $1 million policy, so the award from the school district is $1.5 million.”

He said the district and Poshak will not have to pay any of the final verdict. “The district’s insurance company will pay the award,” he said. Poshak was an employee of the district at the time of the accident.

O’Connor said he had no information on how the verdict might affect the Ely School District’s insurance premiums or liability coverage.

A Minnesota State Patrol reconstruction of the crash indicated that inattention on the part of both vehicles’ drivers (the defendants in the case, along with the Ely school district) contributed to the collision. The State Patrol also cited excessive bus speed as another contributing factor. During the crash, the bus dragged the car about 100 feet before both came to rest.

Another passenger in the car that day, Emmy Foss of Bovey, Minn., died in the crash. One passenger on the bus was slightly injured.

Anderson was 16 years old when the crash took place in Coleraine. Anderson, now 23, has been a quadriplegic since that day. After a seven-day trial late last month, the jury awarded Anderson $28.572 million in past and future damages. The jury award included damages for past and future medical expenses, past and future pain, suffering, disability, disfigurement, emotional distress and loss of earning capacity.