How Yuba City pays a $17M judgment: City insurance to cover settlement in YCPD incident that left man paralyzed [Appeal-Democrat, Marysville, Calif.]

Jul. 20—After an encounter with Yuba City police officers left Yuba City resident Gregory Gross paralyzed, Yuba City is liable for most of the $20 million settlement recently awarded to Gross to pay for his injuries and subsequent care.

Yuba City's portion of this settlement is around $17 million while the remaining $3 million will be paid out by other defendants in the lawsuit, such as the individual officers involved. However, the city is largely self-insured for these types of liabilities, Yuba City Finance Director Spencer Morrison said.

According to Appeal archives, on April 12, 2020, Gross was being arrested under suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol. During the arrest, Yuba City Police Officer Joshua Jackson threw Gross' face first to the ground, breaking his neck and paralyzing him while his hands were handcuffed behind his back, Gross' attorney Moseley Collins said.

Gross was diagnosed with quadriplegia the night of the incident and required two spine fusion surgeries at University of California, Davis Medical Center, Collins said previously.

As a result of his injuries during the incident, Gross has some degree of paralysis in all four of his limbs and faces significant paralysis in his hands. Collins previously said that despite undergoing surgery, Gross' spine was irrevocably damaged.

The lawsuit against the Yuba City Police Department also names Yuba City as an employer for the department, making the city liable for damages.

Morrison told the Appeal that the city is self-insured for liability, property, or workers' compensation due to a lack of affordable coverage in the private market.

"There is no way our local government agency general funds can afford the catastrophic losses of a large flood event, facility fire, or a large award in a liability case, so local government agencies address these risks by becoming members of a joint powers authority that pools risk among agencies in a region," Morrison said in an email. "The annual cost is much less than trying to cover our unique set of risk exposures with traditional insurance that includes members of the public or private industry/businesses in the same way we citizens insure our autos, health and homes."

Yuba City is a member of the Northern California Cities Self Insurance Fund, which includes 21 other cities in a coverage agreement for matters exceeding $50,000 and up to $500,000. Morrison said that Yuba City's self-insured retention is $50,000 while $500,000 matches the joint powers authority limit.

For matters that exceed $500,000 in liability coverage, the Northern California Cities Self Insurance Fund is a member of an excess coverage joint powers authority, the California Joint Powers Risk Management Authority.

This occurrence based risk retention program provides up to $40 million in coverage after the Northern California Cities Self Insurance Fund pays the retained limit of $1 million, Morrison said.

In the case of Gross' settlement, it will be paid out of existing funds in either risk pool or through reinsurance underwriters that the California Joint Powers Risk Management Authority uses, Morrison said. However, the member agencies will be expecting increases in rates for potentially years to come due to this experience.

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