Judge upholds Erie firefighter settlement

Source: Erie Times-News, Pa.文件倉Dec. 20--The $350,000 settlement the city of Erie reached with former firefighter Mary Wolski provides for her reinstatement as a firefighter, restores her pension and grants her $350,000.But Wolski -- who maintains the city illegally fired her after she set a fire in a bathtub amid a 2006 suicide attempt -- told a judge Thursday she would rather take her chances at a second trial of her disability discrimination claims than accept the deal.The settlement -- once legal fees, taxes and other debts are paid -- will not provide enough to pay back her family, who supported her after she was fired, Wolski explained.In addition, she said she does not plan to return to the fire department because that would cause too much dissension. She wants instead to retire, collect her pension and work at another job to supplement her pension, which, she said, would cost her the city health benefits she would otherwise have been entitled to."It puts me in a worse situation than I was before," she said.Wolski appeared in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Thursday in a hearing meant to determine the fate of a settlement struck in her case just days before a November retrial of her Americans with Disability Act claim in U.S. District Court.U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas P. Agresti is presiding over Wolski's 2012 Chapter 7 bankruptcy case and not her discrimination lawsuit. But the court order that settled Wolski's employment lawsuit in U.S. District Court was contingent on Agresti's approval in bankruptcy court because of Wolski's obligations to creditors.In an unexpected development Thursday, Agresti also had to weigh Wolski's objections to the settlement, which, her lawyer and the trustee overseeing her bankruptcy case testified, Wolski had agreed to in an hourslong conference Nov. 1.On that day, her lawyer Paul Susko testified, Wolski had repeatedly thanked him for negotiating the settlement.Wolski sued the city in 2008, saying officials fired her in 2007 after her suicide attempt because she had suffered from a mental illness, depression. The city lost at trial in 2012 and was ordered to rehire Wolski and pay her $206,000 in damages. The city won a new trial on appeal. The case settled in Novemb存倉r on the eve of that trial.Agresti took testimony from Wolski, Susko, and bankruptcy trustee John Melaragno on Thursday and then upheld the settlement.Agresti said the settlement was in the best interest of Wolski's creditors and that if Wolski risked taking her case to trial again, there was a strong possibility she would lose. If she won, the resolution of the case could be delayed for years by appeals, Agresti said."Settlements are not perfect," he said. "You don't get everything you want."Wolski, under questioning from her lawyer Tina Fryling, told Agresti that she did not understand the implications of the settlement when it was reached in November.Most of the settlement proceeds, testimony indicated, won't go to Wolski. Susko is to be paid about $142,000 to cover his costs and fees. More than $46,000 must be paid to the city to restore Wolski's pension benefits. About $60,000 will be set aside for taxes and $22,000 for other creditors. The trustee expenses will amount to about $10,000, testimony indicated.In the end, Agresti said, it appears Wolski stands to collect at least $65,000 and possibly more.Wolski also said the settlement will not allow her to retain city health insurance.She said she made it clear to the parties that she never intended to resume work as a firefighter, but wished only to be reinstated long enough to retire and begin to collect her pension.She said when she won reinstatement in 2012, it caused an "uproar throughout the city.""I do not want to put the fire department through anything else," she said.Wolski said her pension would pay about $1,600 a month, which is not enough to support her household. She said if she maintained her current job at a local company to supplement her pension income, she would not be eligible for the city's insurance coverage.Wolski said if she took her case to trial and won, she could ask the court to order the defendants to pay her legal fees, leaving more of the proceeds to her.LISA THOMPSON can be reached at 870-1802 or by e-mail. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNthompson.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Erie Times-News (Erie, Pa.) Visit the Erie Times-News (Erie, Pa.) at .GoErie.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存