Insurance company to Gloucester: No coverage [Daily Press, Newport News, Va.]

Dec. 28--An attempt to collect $171,000 through insurance coverage to reimburse county coffers for legal fees racked up by four Gloucester supervisors has been denied by the Virginia Association of Counties Risk Management Programs.

Gloucester County Attorney Ted Wilmot filed an appeal of the denial by the VACo Self-Insurance Risk Pool on Dec. 8, according to documents obtained from the county through a Freedom of Information of Act request.

The VACo organization provides insurance and risk management services to counties, cities, school divisions and other government entities. Gloucester was notified on Nov. 20, by a letter written by Nancy Helm, an attorney with the VACo Risk Management Programs, that the $171,000 in legal fees would not be paid by the VACo Self-Insurance Risk Pool.

The county doesn't qualify for payment because the legal fees weren't money damages assessed against supervisors acting in the regular course of duty, according to Helms' letter. The claim against the supervisors was never for monetary damages, merely to remove them from office, she wrote.

"While it is true that the Court has ordered the County to pay the legal bills incurred by the individual Board of Supervisor members, the bottom line is that the action was purely equitable and the awarded fees do not constitute damages as defined by the contract," Helm wrote.

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