LOCKPORT – The City of Lockport’s insurance company will make a cash payment to the estate of the mother of Alderman John Lombardi III, settling a lawsuit over her death on a day when the city’s two ambulances were unavailable.
Corporation Counsel John J. Ottaviano said Thursday he wasn’t allowed to reveal how much is being paid to the estate of Jeanette A. Lombardi, 75, who died Sept. 20, 2012, after going into anaphylactic shock in her West Avenue home.
The apparent cause was a reaction to medication she was given during a dental appointment that morning.
Although Ottaviano said the timing of the settlement was a coincidence, he said it will help the city tactically in fighting a lawsuit filed by the firefighters’ union over the city’s efforts to reduce the minimum number of firefighters on each shift for financial reasons.
The Lockport Professional Fire Fighters Association sued to block the cuts, which involved taking one of the city’s two ambulances and one of its three fire trucks out of service. The case is to be heard May 28 in State Supreme Court in Niagara Falls.
The union’s legal filing referred to the Lombardi case as an example of what could happen with reduced manpower.
Ottaviano said settling with the Lombardi estate “definitely helps us, because our hands are no longer tied. We couldn’t respond to the issue they raised because we had litigation pending regarding it.”
Ottaviano received a letter Wednesday from New York Municipal Insurance, announcing the settlement and instructing him not to disclose the terms.
Alderman Lombardi and his sister Beth Arajs, the executor of their mother’s estate, both said they didn’t know anything about the settlement.
Fire Chief Thomas J. Passuite sought to blame Assistant Chief Joseph A. Morello, the duty officer that day, but last November a state arbitrator ruled that Morello did nothing wrong and should not be disciplined.
The city’s attempt to demote Morello and suspend him without pay for 30 days was stopped by the union grievance that arbitrator Michael S. Lewandowski upheld.
His report said Passuite testified that he wouldn’t have tried to discipline Morello at all if it weren’t for an angry Lombardi confronting him about the circumstances of his mother’s death,
That morning, one city ambulance was on a training exercise at a Lockport chemical plant, and a second ambulance with a standby crew transferred a psychiatric patient to Medina. Morello also called three more firemen to come in to work.
The 911 call about Jeanette Lombardi’s “difficulty breathing” came in about 11:30. Morello, having no ambulances available, sought mutual aid from South Lockport Fire Company, but it couldn’t get a crew so the call was switched to Wrights Corners Fire Company.
By the time its crew made it to the Lombardi home, it was too late.
email: tprohaska@buffnews,com
Corporation Counsel John J. Ottaviano said Thursday he wasn’t allowed to reveal how much is being paid to the estate of Jeanette A. Lombardi, 75, who died Sept. 20, 2012, after going into anaphylactic shock in her West Avenue home.
The apparent cause was a reaction to medication she was given during a dental appointment that morning.
Although Ottaviano said the timing of the settlement was a coincidence, he said it will help the city tactically in fighting a lawsuit filed by the firefighters’ union over the city’s efforts to reduce the minimum number of firefighters on each shift for financial reasons.
The Lockport Professional Fire Fighters Association sued to block the cuts, which involved taking one of the city’s two ambulances and one of its three fire trucks out of service. The case is to be heard May 28 in State Supreme Court in Niagara Falls.
The union’s legal filing referred to the Lombardi case as an example of what could happen with reduced manpower.
Ottaviano said settling with the Lombardi estate “definitely helps us, because our hands are no longer tied. We couldn’t respond to the issue they raised because we had litigation pending regarding it.”
Ottaviano received a letter Wednesday from New York Municipal Insurance, announcing the settlement and instructing him not to disclose the terms.
Alderman Lombardi and his sister Beth Arajs, the executor of their mother’s estate, both said they didn’t know anything about the settlement.
Fire Chief Thomas J. Passuite sought to blame Assistant Chief Joseph A. Morello, the duty officer that day, but last November a state arbitrator ruled that Morello did nothing wrong and should not be disciplined.
The city’s attempt to demote Morello and suspend him without pay for 30 days was stopped by the union grievance that arbitrator Michael S. Lewandowski upheld.
His report said Passuite testified that he wouldn’t have tried to discipline Morello at all if it weren’t for an angry Lombardi confronting him about the circumstances of his mother’s death,
That morning, one city ambulance was on a training exercise at a Lockport chemical plant, and a second ambulance with a standby crew transferred a psychiatric patient to Medina. Morello also called three more firemen to come in to work.
The 911 call about Jeanette Lombardi’s “difficulty breathing” came in about 11:30. Morello, having no ambulances available, sought mutual aid from South Lockport Fire Company, but it couldn’t get a crew so the call was switched to Wrights Corners Fire Company.
By the time its crew made it to the Lombardi home, it was too late.
email: tprohaska@buffnews,com