After nearly 18 months of litigation, the Greenville Public School District and Argonaut Great Central Insurance Company (AGCIC) have finally reached a consensus that will allow the appraisal process to move forward and the suit settled.
AGCIC serves as GPSD’s insurance carrier under its property casualty policy and asserted in its Sept. 3, 2020 complaint that certain claims of hail damage to GPSD facilities in November 2017 and March 2018 are not “ripe for appraisal.”
In October 2020, the school board appointed Tennessee-based attorney Brandon McWherter as legal counsel to defend the district against the complaint.
School board attorney Dorian Turner informed the trustees of the latest developments in the legal matter at their regular Tuesday meeting.
“In January, we were required by the judge to attempt to settle the lawsuit. Those settlement efforts were not successful, but what we were successful in doing was coming up with a method of settling the lawsuit,” said Turner.
Pointing out the failed attempts made by the two parties to agree upon an appraisal umpire, Turner recalled that the presiding judge had ordered the appraisal process to move forward last summer.
With that, the agreed upon method by GPSD and AGCIC is the appraisal umpire will determine what amount, if any, the district is to be compensated.
“So, rather than have them go through any sort of long, drawn out litigation, Brandon McWherter said he thinks the appraisal process should take about 90 days,” Turner said to the board. “He seems to be fairly confident that number one, the district will get some sort of recovery and two, the appraisal process should take about 90 days.”
On Aug. 30, 2021, U.S. Magistrate Judge David A. Sanders issued an order appointing Samuel C. Kelly — an attorney with the law firm of Brunini in Jackson — as the appraisal umpire.
His practice focuses on the construction industry and includes contract preparation and negotiations, bid protests, claim preparation and evaluation and dispute resolution.
Turner added, “The parties have agreed that whatever that appraiser comes up with, that is going to be the final amount and that is what Argonaut will have to pay the district and Argonaut will not be able to appeal it. So hopefully by the end of this summer you all will see a resolution to this lawsuit.”
