(Memphis) The City of Memphis is reviewing a lawsuit filed against the city Monday by the victims of a deadly car crash involving a Memphis police officer.
The lawsuit comes exactly one week after the police department fired Alex Beard for the crash that killed two people on Crump Boulevard last August.
Beard was speeding without using the squad car’s emergency lights or sirens.
The crash that killed 13-year-old Mackayla Ross and her mother, Deloise Epps can be summed up by the family’s attorney in one word, negligent.
“He didn’t follow the rules of the road,” said Thomas Greer.
Monday morning, Greer, the lawyer for MacKayla Ross and her father, Michael Ross, filed a lawsuit against the City of Memphis.
Deloise Epps isn’t named in the lawsuit, but News Channel 3 is told her estate does plan on filing a separate lawsuit.
Because of a state law called the governmental tort liability act, the most victims can collectively get when they sue a government agency is $700,000.
“That may sound like a lot of money, but consider you have a 13-year-old child who died, her mother died and her father was critically injured and has a million dollars’ worth of medical bills. It’s not enough to cover the losses in this case,” said Greer.
Michael Ross survived the crash, but still can’t go back to work six months after.
Because of the state’s limits, Greer says most victims caught up in lawsuits filed against government agencies, end up in bankruptcy and depending on government programs.
“What you have is the taxpayer paying for someone’s minimal care and you have the entity escaping responsibility,” said Greer.
The city has 30 days to file an official response to the lawsuit.
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