Kansas City Council votes to settle two costly lawsuits

The Kansas City Council has voted to settle two lawsuits that will cost the city several million dollars each.

One deals with a warrant cancellation fee at Municipal Court, and the other relates to a 2005 tax increment financing agreement over the Blue Ridge Mall.

The first settlement must still be approved by a judge, but it represents an agreement between the city and the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit. That 2015 lawsuit was filed over fees that many defendants paid to Kansas City Municipal Court to cancel their warrants. The court started imposing the warrant cancellation fee to try to reduce the number of people failing to show up for court. But the members of the class argued the fee constituted a court cost above what was allowed by Missouri law.

The council passed an ordinance Thursday to settle that case for $2.4 million, which the city’s Finance Department said would be paid out over two years, from the city’s general fund.

For many years, the Municipal Court charged a warrant cancellation fee of $10 for people with warrants over nonmoving violations and $25 for people with warrants on moving or general ordinance violations. Under the settlement, people would be entitled to refunds of 65 percent of the amount paid.

If a judge approves the settlement, information will be sent to members of the class about potential partial refunds to those fees dating back to April 5, 2010. Any warrant cancellation fees paid prior to that time are past the statute of limitations. The Municipal Court stopped charging such fees in June 2015.

According to the city attorney’s office, about 153,300 warrant fee payments are affected, although some people made more than one payment, so the number of people affected is fewer than the payments made. Following court approval, a third party would administer the class and would notify people by mail about partial refunds. People not wishing to participate in the settlement would be given the choice to opt out of it.

The second settlement resolves a lawsuit by the Raytown School District over tax increment financing payments they had expected from Kansas City pertaining to the Blue Ridge Mall TIF plan of 2005. The City Council agreed to settle that lawsuit for $3 million, with $600,000 paid this year and $200,000 each year thereafter for 12 years, from the general fund.

This story was originally published November 4, 2016 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Kansas City Council votes to settle two costly lawsuits."