City spent more than $1B on lawsuit payouts

City payouts on lawsuits and claims have topped $1 billion a year.

The city doled out the staggering sum in settlements and judgments in fiscal year 2016, with payments for injuries and other damages rising by 7 percent over the prior fiscal year, city Comptroller Scott Stringer reports.

Nearly 10,000 tort claimants received $629.5 million for alleged police misconduct or mistakes, medical malpractice or unsafe sidewalks and schools.

The payments also ended dust-gathering suits filed as long ago as 1993, including $13.5 million for seven murder victims of “Mafia Cops” Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, NYPD detectives who served the Lucchese crime family in the ’80s and ’90s.

Another $380.9 million paid claims in cases involving contracts, salary disputes, or a lack of special-ed services.

Stringer called the payout total “alarming.”

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