Jury finds against retired Germantown teachers who lost benefit after Act 10
A lawyer for 90 retired Germantown teachers asked a jury Monday to award them more than $9 million in damages from their former employer, who the retirees say took their affordable long-term care insurance in a political power play after passage of Wisconsin’s Act 10 law.
The district’s attorney urged jurors to reject liability under all three of the plaintiffs’ theories. “They ignored it (a warning that the insurance plan could terminate) and now they want to blame the school district,” Kevin Pollard said.
The lawyers’ closing arguments came after a weeklong trial, but it took the jury just an afternoon to decide the district owed nothing to the retirees.
The district added the benefit in 1998 but terminated its contract with WEA Trust in 2012. By then, the plaintiffs had been paying their own monthly premiums toward a paid-up policy after 30 years. Some came up with lump sums of $35,000 to $40,000 to pay up the policies, but 46 others did not, and forfeited about $200,000 in premiums for no coverage.
The retired teachers saw the right to continue paying the group-term rates as a vested benefit yanked out from beneath them.
Much more on Act 10, here.
