When Key West officials terminated the contract of their felony-indicted former city attorney in April, Ron Ramsingh walked away with a $221,000 payout because the commissioners voted to terminate him without cause.
Ron Ramsingh is now taking the city to court, claiming the city is responsible for paying his legal defense bills in the ongoing felony case that charges him official misconduct and obstruction of justice by knowingly and intentionally interfering with the reporting of a felony committed by his brother, the city’s former chief building officials, Rajindhar ‘Raj’ Ramsingh.
Ron Ramsingh filed suit against the city on Oct. 17, claiming breach of contract and asking the court to order the city to pay Ramsingh’s legal defense bills.
Although the legal filing runs 77 pages, most of it is a list of attachments of employment contracts in which the city agrees to indemnify employees and pay for their legal defense for cases that arise out of the course of their normal employment.
Ramsingh’s attorneys quote the paragraph in his contract, and the contracts of prior city attorneys and city managers. Those contracts state the city will indemnify (or protect) those employees for “… action which is related directly or indirectly to the Attorney’s lawful actions in his capacity as City Attorney.”
The key words in those contracts are “lawful actions,” attorney Cynthia Hall told the city commissioners back in April when they were deciding whether to terminate Ramsingh’s contract with or without cause.
Hall is a former Monroe County attorney, who in April acted as a temporary representative for the city commissioners at the meeting about Ramsingh’s termination, as Ramsingh, for obvious reasons, could not represent the officials.
In his lawsuit, Ramsingh’s attorneys point out that the city already paid three legal bills for Ramsingh totaling $6,175. Those bills stemmed from the original indictments of Ramsingh and were paid without discussion or opposition.
The lawsuit seeks to have those payments continue, but some commissioners aren’t willing to do that unless required by law, particularly given the fact that Ramsingh’s actions as indicted could be proven to have been unlawful and outside the scope of his public duties, and therefore not protected by his contract’s indemnification clause.
Mayor Dee Dee Henriquez said the city still had not been served with the lawsuit as of Oct. 22, so it would be inappropriate for her to comment until the city was formally served.
Commissioner Donie Lee told the Keys Weekly on Oct. 22, “I don’t think the city should pay his legal bills if he was committing unlawful acts, unless we are required by law.”
Commissioner Sam Kaufman said, “I am deeply disappointed to learn of this lawsuit, given everything our community has endured as a result of this unfortunate chapter in City Hall’s history. While I cannot comment on the pending litigation, it’s disheartening to see further strain placed on the city and its residents at a time when we are working hard to restore public trust and accountability.”
