Jury awards Ryan Ferguson nearly $38 million in damages after insurance company fails to pay settlement

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

An insurance company was ordered to pay Ryan Ferguson nearly $38 million in damages after it failed to pay him from a previous wrongful conviction lawsuit. 

Ferguson’s attorney, Michael Berry, provided ABC 17 News with a copy of a Cole County jury verdict ruling in favor of Ferguson and six former officers with the Columbia Police Department after Traveler’s Insurance failed to pay Ferguson money owed from the lawsuit. The jury assessed Ferguson's damages at $2.9 million and an additional $35 million in punitive damages. The jury returned the verdict on Friday.

Ferguson declined to comment when contacted by ABC 17 News, but Kathleen Zellner --- who is also an attorney who represents Ferguson -- told ABC 17 News in a statement:

“This verdict will have a widespread effect on wrongful conviction cases across the country when the insurer refuses to participate in the settlement negotiations and refuses to pay their share of the verdict immediately. Justice was finally served for Ryan Ferguson. The jury heard us loud and clear."

According to Zellner, Ferguson will get 86% of the verdict while the six police officers will get a total of 14% or 2% apiece.

The six officers (Jeffery Nichols, William Westbrook, John Short, Loyd Simmons, Latisha Burns and Bryan Liebhart), worked the initial Kent Heitholt murder case, but were added as plaintiffs against Travelers Insurance for denying the officers needed coverage in civil rights violation cases, according to Zellner. Because Travelers declined coverage for the incident, the officers would have gone bankrupt if they were forced to pay the settlement.

"The officers were put in a no-win situation and Ryan was put in a situation where he could not collect his verdict without being able to sue Travelers on behalf of the officers," Zellner told ABC 17 News in a text message. "Ryan has now won ($)48 million $905,000 as a result of his wrongful conviction. This is the highest the highest verdict in the United States for 10 years of imprisonment.”

Ferguson spent a decade behind bars for the murder of Heitholt, then the Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor. State appeals court judges threw out his conviction in 2013, finding prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense. The officers listed in the lawsuit were also accused of manipulating evidence to get a conviction, but have denied any wrongdoing.  

A federal court awarded Ferguson more than $11 million in a settlement after he sued the City of Columbia, police, and prosecutors in 2017. Ferguson sued later that year to collect the money from Travelers Insurance. Count II of the lawsuit alleges Travelers Insurance “intentionally disregarded the financial interest of the officers in the hopes of escaping the obligation to fund the Officers’ defense and to escape the obligation to indemnify them for a significant financial obligation covered by L.E.L [Law Enforcement Liability Policy].”

St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, doing business as Travelers Insurance, covered the City of Columbia for law enforcement liability from 2006-11 for up to $2 million per year. The company was ordered to give Ferguson $1 million for each year he was in prison under their policy. An additional $354,000 was awarded for Ferguson's legal fees. The city and its current insurer paid out $2.75 million to Ferguson. 

Travelers filed an appeal in 2019, alleging that the events described in the lawsuit occurred before the city's insurance policy kicked in. Missouri Court of Appeals Western District judges sided with Ferguson, awarding him $5.3 million, saying that the policy covered Ferguson's imprisonment. Both sides went to a jury trial last month in Cole County to try Ferguson and the officers' claim against Travelers.