BY KYM LIEBLER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON -- Warren County commissioners agreed Tuesday to use a mediator to resolve a disputed $3.8 million jury award the county must pay to relatives of a family killed in a 1995 car accident.
A jury on April 3 ordered the county to pay $5 million to relatives of the Rev. David Hensley and his family for failing to install a guardrail that would have stopped the Hensleys' car from plunging into the Great Miami River on Jan. 22, 1995.
Although the award was reduced by $1.2 million by Judge P. Daniel Fedders of Warren County Common Pleas Court, county commissioners appealed the case May 11. The award, they said, still was too high. Lawyers for survivors of the Hensley family also appealed the case, saying the award was too low.
The whole family -- the Rev. Mr. Hensley, Sandra Hensley and their children, Alisha and Brian -- drowned in the accident.
"It's (using a mediator) a good approach; I would like to see this resolved," said James Ruppert, a Franklin lawyer representing the Rev. Mr. Hensley's siblings and parents, Henry and Opal Hensley, and the parents and siblings of Sandra Hensley.
"Obviously, for my folks, I don't want to put them through another trial," Mr. Ruppert said.
Judge Fedders shaved $1 million off the award by capping survival damages at $250,000 for each of the victims.
The jury had awarded $500,000 in survival damages for each victim. He also reduced the amount of damages awarded for the Rev. Mr. Hensley's death by 20 percent, or $200,000, because the jury found the Rev. Mr. Hensley -- who was driving -- 20 percent responsible for the deaths.
The two sides hired a mediator prior to the trial, but were unable to agree on how much the county should pay to the surviving family members.
The same mediator, James Ready of Columbus, will handle the second round of talks.
"It got nowhere the first time because their (Warren County's) offer was very minimal, to say the least," Mr. Ruppert said.
He called the judge's decision to cap the amount of survival damages "unconstitutional" and wants to see the $3.8 million increased.
"I can assure you, the award will not go below $3.8 million," he said.
