Wall Schools trailer settlement is $240,000

WALL TOWNSHIP — Settlement details have been obtained in the Luke Grasso vs. Wall Township Board of Education (BOE) case, with the former Central Elementary School (CES) student netting $240,000.

Grasso sued the school district in 2019 after he claimed that during the 2010-2011 school year, he was “exposed to mold throughout the entirety of his fourth grade during all indoor classes held at one of the two CES trailers,” resulting in “various medical conditions due to mold exposure including a tonsillectomy and a thyroidectomy,” courts documents state.

Brian Smyth, the district’s business administrator and custodian of records, provided settlement details in an email to The Coast Star this week, stating that the BOE paid $50,000 as an insurance deductible to the board’s allotted company.

Smyth said the insurance company’s counsel in this case, Goldberg Segalla, of Newark and Princeton, was paid $50,000 from the applicable policy’s deductible, the last payment being made in June of 2023.

“The district’s deductible varies depending on the insurance policy, and depending on the claim, there may not be a deductible,” Smyth told The Coast Star in a previous email. “However, if there is a deductible based on the claim and applicable policy, that amount is applied to the initial costs of representing the district and is not used for the cost of a settlement reached by an insurance company. When an insurance company settles a claim, the cost is paid by the insurance company.”

Smyth provided a copy of the signed release, which states that Grasso releases “any and all claims, whether asserted or unasserted, whether known or unknown, that could have been asserted within a certain action pending in Superior Court of the state of New Jersey … concerning alleged exposure to toxic substances.”

The release also states, “It is understood that this settlement was reached between (Luke Grasso) and the insurance company for the Wall Township Board of Education per the terms of the Wall Township Board of Education’s insurance policy with the insurance company, and the Wall Township Board of Education was not required to formally endorse or approve the settlement.”

The document is signed by Grasso and dated June 24. Settlement documents were filed on May 30 by Grasso’s legal counsel, but attempts to obtain the details of the settlement and release were unsuccessful until this week.

The Coast Star spoke to BOE attorney Athena Cornell of Cornell, Merlino & Osborne, following the June 11 BOE meeting, who said the settlement was handled on the BOE’s behalf .

“We are not in a position to comment. The matter was handled by the board’s insurance carrier,” she said.

Multiple calls to Grasso’s attorney Brian Ansell were not returned.

This is an excerpt of the print article. For more on this story, read The Coast Star —on newsstands Thursday or online in our e-Edition.

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