Westfall Township supervisors to sue liability insurance provider

Aug. 07--Westfall Township supervisors have authorized a lawsuit against its former liability insurance provider.

The insurance company was to cover the township in the event of a lawsuit that resulted in a payout to a litigant. But it was the township that ended up on the hook for a $703,000 settlement in 2012 with former police officer Robert Dombrosky. Westfall will be making payments to Dombrosky until 2022.

"We have taken the position that there was some bad faith on the part of the insurance carrier," Westfall Solicitor Bob Bernathy said. "The company abandoned the township a month before trial."

Bernathy advised supervisors to authorize litigation against Darwin National Assurance Co. and Allied World Assurance Co.

"We hope the suit has merit, and we are able to recover the settlement," Bernathy said.

The company did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

Dombrosky had been suspended from the Westfall Police Department in July 2007, after a bar fight at the Erie Restaurant in Port Jervis, New York, according to court documents.

The Orange County District Attorney's Office in New York charged Dombrosky with attempted assault. At the time of the suspension, Dombrosky, who earned $755 a week, was promised his job back with Westfall police and back pay if he was found not guilty.

While suspended, the Westfall and Matamoras police departments were dissolved and a new joint force, the Eastern Pike Regional Police, was formed. The joint department is directed by a police commission.

Officers from the former departments were hired, but the new department had no room for another employee, and the commission, which did not exist when Dombrosky was suspended, had made no promise to rehire him, court papers stated.

A little more than a month after Eastern Pike Regional Police was formed on Jan. 1, 2008, Dombrosky was acquitted of the charges in the 2007 Erie Restaurant incident.

Dombrosky filed a complaint in federal court in December 2009, demanding a job with Eastern Pike Regional Police and back pay from the time he believed he should have been reinstated.

The parties settled in 2012 with the payout split between Dombrosky and his attorney.

In 2012, the Pocono Record sought documents regarding the insurer, to learn whether the township had the proper insurance coverage, but the township refused to provide the paperwork, saying it was privileged information and part of potential litigation.

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