Judge Declines to Reopen Wales Case at Conference with Mayor Kim

At Mayor Ron Kim’s request, the Saratoga Springs City Council passed a resolution at their August 2, 2022, meeting authorizing Kim to write to the Judge in the Tim Wales case asking her to explain the deductible the city was being asked to pay to Travelers Insurance for the settlement of the case.

Instead, Kim sent the following letter to the judge asking for the case to be reinstated and for a meeting.

Judge D’Agostino granted Mayor Kim’s request for a conference and met with the parties including Kim on August 11,2022.

I have been told by several attorneys that Judge Mae D’Agostino is highly respected in the legal community.

The following is a web page from the Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF). It is used by the federal courts for, among other things, providing public access to its activities.

This page records the progression of the Wales case ending with a description of the conference Judge D’Agostino held with Kim, Kevin Laurilliard, who had represented Tim Wales, and John Aspland, who had represented the city in the case.

The account of the meeting given here is brief. I take it from “The matter remains settled” that the Judge advised Mayor Kim that the case is closed and will not be reopened despite his request.

“The Mayor seems to agree and understands the terms – the mayor was seeking additional information regarding the settlement, which this Court does not have.”

I conjecture from this that Kim seemed to understand the settlement but was still seeking information about the deductible and the significance of the fact that the Council never voted to approve the settlement.

If this is the case, it would not be surprising that he was told by the court (the judge) that it does not have this information.

At the risk of appearing snarky, of course the judge does not have this information. The terms of the agreement between the city and its insurer have nothing to do with what transpired in the court case.

Any conflict between the city (the Mayor) and its insurer will have to be resolved between those parties.

I have FOILed the court for the complete transcript of the meeting. I was told that the transcript was not sealed, so it should be available. When I receive it, I will post it on this blog.