Travis County Commissioners Court
August 21, 2007
Item 9
Let's quickly go to number 9, which is consider and take appropriate action regarding the following claims. A, steven torres, recommendation to settle. B, January is auld, recommendation to deny. And c is wade h. Russell, and the recommendation is to deny too. We will call up the compensation item after this one. Yes, sir.
>> judge, Commissioners. The first claim is a third party claim from steven torres who was driving his 2002 chevy silverado and was struck by a 2007 sheriff's office vehicle. Pardon me. And causing extensive damage to both vehicles. The claimant's vehicle is a total loss and we're recommending settlement of the claim in the amount of $16,141.
>> is mr. Torres here?
>> I don't believe so.
>> b.
>> b is a little different claim. It's one from an employee from health and human services. She uses her personal vehicle to make visits to clients, and when she was visiting a client back on July 25th, the client's four-year-old son threw a rock and broke the front passenger window. The claim is for request to reimburse her for those expenses. To repair the window. The facts are that the vehicle is a privately owned vehicle. It does not belong to Travis County. The four-year-old child has no connection to Travis County other than being a client of health and human services.
>>
>> [inaudible].
>> you should be recruited. And we as a county have no lie liability or negligence or participation in the act to cause damage to her vehicle so we're recommending denial of the claim for that reason and limitation of the Texas tort claims act that would apply in this case.
>> ms. Fleming, are you here on this item?
>> yes, sir. Sherry fleming, executive manager for Travis County health and human services. I just wanted to be available to discuss with the court that it is common practice for caseworkers in health and human services to try to reduce barriers to clients who may not have transportation or may have caregiver issues, but yet have a serious need for the services provided through health and human services. So it is not uncommon for staff to travel in their private vehicles to client homes to complete eligibility for various county services, deliver food pantry items and other services. The department does not have county vehicles to make these trips. We do have a county vehicle that's used by our mail runner obviously because his job requires that he travel from county facility and city facilities throughout the day. So he does use a county vehicle, but other staff in health and human services who are required by their job descriptions to be available and make home visits do not cumtomarily use county vehicles.
>> so there's no question that here she was performing an official duty when she went to this client's residence to do work.
>> that is correct.
>> and the client's child --
>> [inaudible] at the time?
>> I believe she was walking in. Ms. Auld is here.
>> come forward, ms. Auld.
>> if I remember her statement correctly, I think she was walking in and out delivering food pantry items.
>> tell us what happened.
>> the whole visit was to help the client pay their electricity bill. Also the client requested a food pantry.
>> requested what?
>> a fad pantry.
>> it's several bags of grocery from our food -- okay.
>> and I was delivering the food pantry and the mom was helping me. The little boy went outside, picked up a rock from the landscape and threw it at the right side of my s.u.v., passenger side window, and it broke it out.
>> I do want to add that mileage is paid for use of private vehicles at 48 and a half cents a mile, I believe, and that's to compensate for the use of the vehicle including gas, maintenance and so forth, including insurance.
>> well, there is no question that -- or is there, this window was broken at the client's residence.
>> that's correct.
>> we don't doubt that. Your point is legal liability.
>> that's right.
>> and you chatted with the county attorney in reaching this conclusion?
>> yes.
>> we will chat with her further in executive session. How is that? When we go this afternoon. So how much money are we talking about?
>> $200.
>> to replace the window?
>> yes.
>> 200 bucks. Okay.
>> how many of these do we have on record? How many kids throw rocks through -- I mean this has got to be one of the deals that's a crazy one time only. My god, we've got to be able to help somebody. We've got a lot of windshields broken with this, we either need to get them stop going or make sure there's no rocks anywhere.
>> there are no kids.
>> surely we can take care of this one.
>> the rock incident is unique, but damage to personal vehicles is not. We have a number of those each year.
>> I think we ought to hear from legal. My inclination would be to help out our county employee. We don't want her to say next time only if I have a county car will I go visit the client. Which our county judge would be inclined to say. So we may have to let you know by phone this afternoon after court how this comes out. Okay?
>> okay.
>> because it will be late before we go into executive session based on how today's session is going.
>> okay.
>> any other question of ms. Awld since we have her here?
>> thank you, judge.
>> and the russell case?
>> yes. This is a claim for a cash bond reimbursement. The third party, mr. Wade russell, is a tone representing a defendant who he put up cash bond for at the end of the requirements for the defendant to receive the cash bond refund, it required an assignment from the defendant to the attorney to be paid to him. The court order authorizing the refund was submitted to the district clerk's office without the assignment, and the money was eventually reimbursed to the defendant based on statute. And we have michelle brinkman who can explain in more detail the process that follows, but our recommendation is to deny the claim based on the fact that there was no assignment submitted with the court order requesting reimbursement and that reimbursement was made to the defendant, according to statute.
>> so the statute said return the money to the defendant unless there is an assignment to return it to somebody else?
>> no, your honor.
>> I don't believe the statute says there is --
>> that's not what the statute says. If I may address the court.
>> yes, sir.
>> judge, Commissioners, the statute is --
>> state your name.
>> I'm sorry?
>> wade russell. I'm an attorney. I'm the claimant. The statute is 1702, the code of criminal procedure. It says any cash funds deposited under this article shall be receipted by the officer receiving the same. That would be a sheriff's sheriff's deputy. And shall be refund to do the defendant if and when the defendant complies with the conditions of a bond, which means going to court and finishing his case, and upon order of the court. To me that contemplates an order that would permit the defendant to receive those funds. In this case -- and I'll say to the court there are different kinds of orders that the judges have been using and there was some confusion I think in the district clerk's office which form to use. The form I used is an order the state pay to it me directly. Because I had the assignment, I asked judge kocurek paying it to me. The order on its face said to pay it to me directly and not to a defendant. I think the county's position is, well, we have a procedure set up where we're not going to give this money to the attorney unless we have a receipt and an order from the court returning that money to anyone. The statute says the defendant is not going to get it. If there is a receipt presented and an order and an assignment filed, then and only then will the clerk pay the attorney that money. I forgot to turn in the assignment. About a month later I realized and I called in and said hold on to this if you can and I'll take care of it when I get back and bring in my reassignment. When I got back, I discovered in my discussions with the district clerk's office the check had already been sent to my client and his family cashed it. I tried to get reimbursed by the family of my client who was in jail and, of course, after a while they wouldn't return my calls and didn't want to pay this money. My client understood this was part of my fee and it was to come to me. Had the clerk read the order, the clerk would have checked on this and gotten ahold of me. She in this process claimed she tried to call me, but I never received a phone call requesting the assignment. So my position is the money was sent to my client illegally. It violated the statute and I think the procedure followed in Travis County doesn't directly track the statute, and I would further suggest that the training given to the clerk was insufficient in that she didn't read the actual substance of the order. She just thought, well, I got an order and there's no assignment so I'm sending it to the defendant. My position is had she read the order, she would have held off and sent it to me instead. So I'm asking the county to compensate me for that because I think while I was somewhat at fault, had the clerk read the assignment or the order from the court, this wouldn't have happened.
>>
>> [inaudible].
>> actually mr. Kapel has been and we can discuss tonight executive as well.
>> mr. Russell, we'll have to give you an after court phone call today too. We'll discuss it with legal in executive session, but we will try to land on this today. And we have your phone number, right?
>> yes, sir.
>> this is a hard-working, long-working court. It will be between 5:00 and 6:00, I think.
>> no problem. I don't want to rush the court.
>> we'll let you know something today.
>> thank you very much.
>> any questions for mr. Russell? Thank you.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, August 22, 2007, 18:30 AM