City payouts for lawsuits filed against the Department of Education shot up by 29 percent last year, to $47 million, according to the City Comptroller’s Office.
That was nearly $11 million more than the city shelled out in 2006, even though the total number of settlements rose by only two. More than 20 percent – nearly $10 million – of the money paid by the city in 2007 went to students who were victims of physical or sexual assaults, a spokeswoman for Comptroller William Thompson said.
Damages from the 1,057 settlements peaked at $1.5 million last year, with the case of a Manhattan high-school custodian who fell down an elevator shaft and died.
Lawyers for the city pointed to a doubling in the number of settlements that ranged from $250,000 to $1 million as a major factor in last year’s payout increase.
There were 24 such cases in 2007 – accounting for $6.4 million – and just 12 in 2006, according to Fay Leoussis, chief of the city Law Department’s Tort Division.
She said officials in her office meet regularly with staffers from other city agencies when trends – such as building-code violations not being addressed immediately – are found among the filings.
“We always discuss what we learn from litigation,” she said.