Five years and more than $500,000 in combined lawyers’ bills later, a lawsuit over an incident that started with garden trailer parked illegally in Ocean City is settled.
The City of Ocean City’s insurer will pay $150,001 for Monica Raab to dismiss her claim against an Ocean City police officer.
The settlement ends a lawsuit that hinged on two wildly sensational accounts of what transpired on West Atlantic Boulevard, a quiet north-end side street, on the morning of May 11, 2010.
Raab claims Ocean City Patrolman Jesse Scott Ruch used excessive force as he tried to handcuff her following a confrontation over a ticket Ruch was writing for her brother-in-law’s garden trailer. She claims in the suit that she is left with permanent injuries after Ruch violently twisted her arm and repeatedly slammed her head and body against the ground.
Raab is married to a family physician with an Ocean City practice, Gary Raab, who is part of the Raab Family LLC, which owns some of the most valuable properties on the Ocean City Boardwalk.
Police reports, on the other hand, suggest Raab was uncooperative, hysterical and a danger to her own safety — at one point inexplicably running topless across her front lawn back into her home.
Raab filed an 11-count lawsuit against the City of Ocean City and against Ruch in November 2011. By the time of the settlement, all but one count (including all counts against the City of Ocean City) had been dismissed by Judge Robert B. Kugler in U.S. District Court in Camden. Following the settlement agreement, Kugler signed an order of dismissal for the case on Jan. 21, according to court records.
All that remains of the matter is an argument over who pays the lawyers. Raab and the City of Ocean City have filed competing motions to recover attorney fees.
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Raab seeks $229,316.50 in attorney fees and another $30,420.09 in costs. Her attorney, Paul R. Rizzo of the firm DiFrancesco, Bateman, Coley, Yospin, Kunzman, Davis, Lehrer & Flaum of Warren, N.J., argues, in part, that she is a “prevailing party” in the suit.
Rizzo suggested the city’s firm, Barker, Gelfand and James of Linwood, billed for 1,701 hours of work from partners, associates and paralegals through July 2014 alone. He said his firm billed for 860 hours through November 2014. Rizzo’s firm bills $325 per hour for partner work and $225 per hour for associate work.
The City of Ocean City seeks to recover $206,782.30 in fees. Michael Barker argues that the city is a prevailing party not only because the claims against the city were dismissed but because they were without foundation.
A separate law firm, Reynolds and Horn of Marlton, represented Ruch for part of the lawsuit. Because the city likely will indemnify its employee and pay his separate legal fees, Barker argued that any potential fee award should be reduced to reflect the “limited success” of Raab’s claim against Ruch.
The requests for attorney fees have not yet been decided in U.S. District Court.
Invoices requested by OCNJ Daily as of Oct. 30, 2014 show the city paid more than $274,000 for the combined fees of the city’s firm and Ruch’s firm.
The lawsuit is of interest to Ocean City taxpayers not only because it involved a public employee but because they’re on the hook to pay for it.
While Ocean City is insured by the Atlantic County Municipal Joint Insurance Fund (JIF) and won’t pay dollar-for-dollar what was lost in defense of the lawsuit, the JIF premiums paid by member municipalities are determined by what is paid out by the fund from year to year.
OCNJ Daily was unable to reach Raab for comment. Rizzo said his client is upset over what she was put through and by the fact that there ultimately was no accountability on the part of the Ocean City Police Department.
Ocean City Police Capt. Steve Ang deferred comment on the legal matter to City Solicitor Dottie McCrosson, who was not available on Thursday. McCrosson was not directly involved in defense of the case.
Read more:
- At $200,000 and Counting, Raab Lawsuit Shows Risks of a Fight to the Finish
- Video Fails to Quell Costly Suit Between Doctor’s Wife and Cop
- Running Tab on Raab Lawsuit Nears $275,000 in Ocean City
More detail on the incident:
