The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

June 19, 2009

UPDATE: Settlement contracts opened in wrongful death lawsuit

By Joe Pinchot

HERMITAGE — The city of Hermitage’s insurance company will fork over the full $25,000 the city agreed to pay to settle a lawsuit filed by the wife of a man killed in a traffic crash, said City Manager Gary P. Hinkson.

Joan Klages, the wife of Earl L. Klages Jr. and administratix of his estate, filed the wrongful death suit Dec. 19, 2007, against the city and other public and private entities, and one individual.

Klages, 52, of Pymatuning Township, was killed May 8, 2007, when his motorcycle crashed into a Mercer County Housing Authority snow plow attached to a pickup driven by Timothy J. Swogger, 52, of 87 Woodrow Court, Sharon.

Swogger, maintenance manager for Mercer County Housing Authority, had started to turn left from Lamor Road onto Village Path – one of the entrances to Carol S. Gurrera Village – but stopped “a couple feet” in the opposing lane when he saw Klages coming, police said. Klages hit the brakes and the motorcycle skidded into the plow, police said.

Swogger pleaded guilty to a left-turn violation and paid a fine.

The suit called the intersection improperly designed and “unreasonably dangerous,” and said Swogger should have seen Klages coming.

Others settlement payments that will be made:

• PennDOT, which reviewed the design of Village Path and issued a highway occupancy permit – $100,000.

• Winslow Engineering Inc., Hermitage, the engineering firm for Gurrera Village – $225,000.

• Hermitage Senior Housing Limited Partnership, the owner of the development – $30,000.

• Broadway Associates, Brookfield, the former owner of the land on which Gurrera Village was built – $30,000.

The settlement contract listing the amounts was released by the city in response to a Right-to-Know request by The Herald.

The contract calls the settlement a “compromise” and that payment is not an admission of liability. The settling parties continue to deny they are liable for any of the accusations leveled in the suit

About two-thirds of the $410,000 total payments, $265,661, go to Mrs. Klages, and the rest, $136,667 for fees and $7,672 for expenses, goes to her law firm, Del Sole Cavanaugh Stroyd, Pittsburgh.

The settlement does not include Mercer County Housing Authority, which developed Gurrera Village, or Swogger, and the suit continues against them.

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