Knox City Council Discusses Risner Suit

The pending lawsuit from Edward Risner against the city of Knox was discussed further at the recent meeting of the Knox City Council. Risner claims in his suit that the city committed a breach of verbal contract, and requests $40,000 in reimbursement.

The suit was originally filed in federal court, but was dismissed and has been re-filed. Unfortunately, because the city’s liability carrier does not cover this kind of suit, the city will have to hire its own counsel out-of-pocket. Two firms expressed interest in handling the case: a firm out of LaPorte that quoted the city $150 per hour and estimated a total of nearly 130 hours for the case. The firm of City Attorney David Matsey quoted $120 an hour, and Matsey said that he hopes to get the case thrown out before it ever gets to trial.

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Knox City Council Discusses Risner Lawsuit

The Knox City Council met this week with newly elected councilman Donald Kring taking the seat of 16-year council veteran Ed Blue.

One of the matters brought before the council at the meeting was a pending lawsuit from Edward Risner, who claims that the city breached a verbal contract when they refused to burn down his house as part of a training exercise. Mayor Rick Chambers told WKVI that Risner believes he had a verbal contract with the fire department to burn his house down, and use the opportunity as a training session.

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