The Michigan-based Auto-Owners Insurance Co. is trying to get ahead of the game — or lawsuit. Attorney Robin Keener of Tampa-based Stoler Russell Keener Verona P.A. filed a complaint for interpleader on behalf of AOIC Aug. 10 to determine a resolution for up to $100,000 in damages from the insurance company following a fatal pedestrian crash in Holmes Beach.
Michael Ritchie, 43, struck two pedestrians May 12 with his 2018 GMC Sierra while they were using a crosswalk with an active signal on Gulf Drive between S&S Plaza and the defunct Wells Fargo building.
The pedestrians were taken to HCA Florida Blake Hospital in Bradenton, where Deborah Trotter, 65, of Holmes Beach, was treated and released the same day. Her mother, Miriam Trotter, 86, of Maryland, suffered critical injuries and died May 17.
Ritchie was not arrested and had not been charged with any criminal offense as of Aug. 18 but he was issued a noncriminal traffic citation for failing to yield the right of way to the Trotters.
AOIC insures Bradenton-based Anna Maria Landscaping & Home Services LLC, owned by Ritchie, and the vehicle he was driving during the crash.
The policy includes a $100,000 single-liability limit.
Ritchie also is a full-time Bradenton Fire Department driver/engineer.
Ritchie and his landscaping company were named as defendants in the interpleader complaint, as well as Deborah Trotter as both a victim and a representative of her mother’s estate.
AOIC’s lawsuit states that the company received competing claims and made a global offer of its policy’s combined $100,000 single-liability limit to the claimants, but was not able to obtain a resolution.
“Auto-Owners is ready, able and willing to pay the applicable combined single-liability limits of the Auto-Owners policy except that Auto-Owners is unsure as to which defendant(s) is/are entitled to payment,” the lawsuit states.
So the lawsuit calls for the court to determine the “rightful beneficiaries” of its $100,000 “and the amount of any entitlement owed” following the crash.
It also asks the court to dismiss AOIC from the case with prejudice after paying the $100,000 into a court registry and “discharge Auto-Owners from any further liability to the defendants arising out of the bodily injury, wrongful death, and/or property damage claims arising out of the accident.”
Furthermore, the lawsuit calls to “require the defendants to interplead and litigate and/or settle between themselves their respective rights under and to the proceeds of the combined single-liability limits of the Auto-Owners policy.”
Summons were sent Aug. 10 to the defendants.
No hearings had been scheduled as of Aug. 18.
Bradenton city administrator Rob Perry previously told The Islander that city administration was reviewing Ritchie’s employment following the crash and awaiting results of the infraction case before making a determination.
Perry did not respond to an Aug. 14 call from The Islander inquiring about the review following an Aug. 9 ruling from Judge Robert Farrance of the 12th Judicial Circuit Court.
Farrance withheld adjudication against Ritchie but ruled to find him guilty of failure to yield right of way to the Trotters.
The judge ordered Ritchie to pay a $166 traffic citation and $21 in subpoena costs, as well as complete a four-hour basic driver improvement course, within 60 days.
BFD Chief Tim Geer told The Islander Aug. 15 that Ritchie would continue to be monitored until the matter could go before the BFD’s safety committee, which meets quarterly.
However, Geer said off-duty accidents and traffic infractions don’t often impact employment.
“I don’t see anything coming out of it,” he said.