By STEPHEN NOHLGREN

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 23, 1999

CLEARWATER -- More than eight years after New York security guard George "Eddie" Myers died in a parasailing accident, his four children will receive millions in compensation.

An insurance company that for months maintained it had no connection to the case now has agreed to pay each child $1-million, according to a lawsuit settlement filed Thursday in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court. Myers' estate will receive $115,000, and his girlfriend, also injured, will get $347,374.

"It's good that the money will help my grandchildren, but it will not replace their father or my son," said Elnora Myers, the victim's mother.

Like other family members, she expressed bitterness toward the boat operator and the insurance company that lost at trial 20 months ago, then resisted paying.

"They had no remorse of me losing my kid. Maybe they will have some remorse for losing some of their dollars," Myers said. "So they can have some idea of the pain they have caused."

Part of her anger stems from some of the defense arguments at the trial in 1997.

Houston attorney James E. Ross unsuccessfully tried to introduce evidence that Myers, who was vacationing on Clearwater Beach, had trouble swimming. "Black men have less than 3 percent body fat and traditionally they cannot swim," Ross told the judge.

That comment and others made it "quite apparent that these people didn't value (Myers') life at all, or this wouldn't have dragged on as it did," said Pauline Walls, mother of Myers' eldest child.

Thursday's settlement essentially fulfills the jury's $4.4-million damage verdict.

The parasail boat, had ventured out despite storm warnings. High winds caught the sail carrying Myers and Kathleen Carletta and began to drag the boat backward.

Fearing he would be swamped, the boat operator cut the parasail's line. Carletta fell to the water, but the parasail rope wrapped around Myers' leg and dragged him across Clearwater Beach, a construction site and tennis courts before severing his right foot and dumping him headfirst onto concrete after crashing into a fence. The boat operator -- Beiswenger Enterprises Corp. -- was insured by a consortium of European underwriters. The policy listed "Zurich" as the lead company that backed claims 100 percent.

But who was this Zurich?

Pretrial correspondence from defense attorneys pointed toward Zurich Insurance Co., a multi-national giant based in Switzerland. But after the verdict, Zurich's U.S. representative denied under oath that her company insured the parasail operator.

Then, defense attorneys Ross and Timothy Shusta told Circuit Judge James R. Case they didn't know who their client was. The European insurance industry is complex, they said. They received instructions from an insurance adjuster in France.

Case threatened to fine Ross and Shusta $5,000 a day if they failed to adequately identify their client. That threat, pending for 18 months, was eliminated by Thursday's settlement.

The tangle finally began to unsnarl in New York, where an entity identified only as "Zurich" tried to invalidate the Pinellas verdict by suing the Myers family in federal court. A document recently filed in that case listed "Zurich's" Swiss address. It was none other than headquarters for Zurich Insurance Co.

Settlement negotiations began in earnest, said Miami lawyer Gary Fox, who represents the Myers family.

Zurich's New York lawyers at first offered $750,000, then $800,000, then $3-million, Fox said. They noted that they could continue fighting the jury verdict and, even if they lost, years might pass before the family could collect anything from the European consortium.

"I told them, "Guys, we have been in this eight years, and another eight to 10 years at this point isn't going to make much difference if that's what it's going to take to get the $4.4-million,' " Fox said.

Neither Zurich Insurance Co.'s attorneys nor spokesmen could be reached Thursday.

According to Fox, however, Zurich raised its offer Monday: It would pay the full amount if the family would waive interest. Out of the family's portion, Fox and his firm will get a little more than $1-million in contingency fees, plus the $120,000 they paid for litigation costs. Case still must approve the settlement.

Family members expressed mixed emotions.

Tiffany Myers, 16, misses her father "and doesn't even want to touch the money," said her aunt, Melissa Myers. "She thinks the money is bad."

Shante Myers, 19, a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University, can now move on campus rather than commuting an hour each way from home, said her mother, Pauline Walls.

When she gave her daughter the news, "it was very emotional," Walls said. "She said, "Mommy, I'm so glad it's over. . . . This means these people are responsible for what happened to daddy.' "