Following up on December’s $2.59 million settlement agreement with a chemical company over the 2015 contamination of Rye Golf Club’s greens, the City Council voted February 24 to approve in principle a $1.55 million settlement with Travelers Insurance Company.

 

By Tom McDermott

 

Following up on December’s $2.59 million settlement agreement with a chemical company over the 2015 contamination of Rye Golf Club’s greens, the City Council voted February 24 to approve in principle a $1.55 million settlement with Travelers Insurance Company. The latest agreement stems from a lawsuit the City filed after Travelers denied its $2 million claim against losses related to RGC general manager Scott Yandrasevich’s theft from the club, perpetrated over several years.

 

Yandrasevich is currently serving three concurrent one-to-three year terms in state prison, having pleaded guilty in 2015 to felony charges of larceny and falsifying business records to steal $271,000. Rye maintained in its insurance claim and lawsuit that, in fact, Yandrasevich had stolen far more than the admitted for which he was prosecuted.

 

Mayor Joe Sack said the settlement was reached in consultation between Rye’s Corporation Counsel Kristen Wilson, outside counsel Jaffe & Asher, a “very helpful federal judge, and Travelers. Sack called the settlement, “a significant amount for the City to recover. We would have had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to prosecute to conclusion.” Wilson also reminded the Council that “the amount of the settlement is exclusive of the judgment against Yandrasevich signed by the judge at his sentencing.” The City is free to seek restitution of that $271,000.

 

Rye is not entirely out of the RGC rough yet. A FLSA class action suit filed by law firm Pelton Graham LLC on behalf of 50 to 60 waiters, bartenders, and kitchen workers at the club seeking lost wages and tips is still pending. Attorney Brent Pelton told the paper that the suit “seeks a total of $4 million in lost wages, damages, and interest from the City.” The temporary workers were hired by Yandrasevich’s shell company RM Staffing, however, the suit contends that the City was a joint employer under state and federal labor law.

 

Pelton said that he has already reached out to the City to see if the settlement might be the impetus for settlement talks.