No actually, I teach the very law that you are talking about. Board members have various immunities afforded them, but there is parameters that they must follow in order to have those immunities to lawsuit. Official immunity is available for "Discretionary" decisions like whether or not to paint the towns hall white or blue. Things like whether or not to table a decision for more information or other things like that. Here in this case, one person contacted the attorneys for the township to start a lawsuit costing a quarter of million in fees so far and did it without a board vote which is a violation of MN Chapter 13D requiring an open meeting to spend taxpayer money. Just as they vote to pay monthly bills, this was an enormous expense to get the township into. Also to top it off you are correct, most of them resigned or were run out of office by voters and have not had to endure any cost yet themselves. So yes, the township can sue the board members for the abuse of power of the position they had against one man. Furthermore, the guy who started it is a banker/auditor so he don't care about farmers yet his employer cares I bet when they boycott Riverwood Bank in Bemidji and all over northern MN. So to answer your statement about whether they can recoup the lost money or not, the answer is yes....there is case law on this throughout MN and the other states.
As far as the township paying, yes, if a judgment is against a township in MN, they have to pay it or assess taxes to pay it immediately, if not, MN Statute requires the County to step in and dissolve the township and assess the tax themselves. The insurance policy for "Errors and Omissions" has an exemption in it for violating statutes or laws and it appears that they will not have to pay for the township's illegal activity so yes the township will have to pay it in taxes.
So now you say,"Oh that is not fair" probably but look at it this way, There were only a couple people who told the board to leave me alone and that they would end up paying in the end. The rest of the 1,400 residents of the township stuck their heads in the sand and did nothing.......There is a price for "Doing Nothing"
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