FLINT, MI -- An insurance company representing Genesee County said in a federal lawsuit that it should not have to help the county pay a $36.6 million trial verdict from a jail beating lawsuit.

Ironshore Specialty Insurance Company filed the lawsuit last month in Detroit U.S. District Court alleging it's not responsible for covering damages against Genesee County after jurors found five jail deputies used excessive force against inmate William Jennings.

The company was the excessive liability insurer for Genesee County at the time Jennings was beaten inside the Genesee County Jail following an arrest for suspected drunken driving on Sept. 18, 2010.

It's asking a federal judge to rule that it has no duty to cover the damages or defend the county in the Jennings case, which was filed in August 2013.

Jennings suffered a trauma-induced cataract in one eye, a torn rotator cuff, broken facial bones, nerve damage in one of his hands and a chipped tooth as a result of the beating.

Genesee County Board of Commissioners went into executive session on Monday, April 3, to discuss the lawsuit brought by Ironshore, according to Commissioner Bryant Nolden.

"We're just now getting the information," Nolden said. "That's what we were in closed session for, so I really can't discuss that."

Nolden forwarded further questions to the county's corporation counsel. Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton, who serves as corporation counsel, directed questions to attorney Edward Davison, who was hired to represent the county in the case.

Davison said his response to the lawsuit should be filed by the end of the week.

"They don't feel like they should pay," Davison said of Ironshore. "The county, the deputies and I think they should. It's a relative fairly common way of dealing with things with insurance companies."

The lawsuit filed by Ironshore claims the company carried a liability insurance policy for the county that was to cover claims in excess of the county's underlying liability insurance with another company, Everest National Insurance Company.

Genesee County is self-insured to an extent, according to attorney Edward Davison, adding that it was basically like a deductible one would pay on homeowners or auto insurance.

The next layer is the primary liability insurance policy Genesee County has through Everest National Insurance Company, Davison said.

If that policy is extinguished, Davison said, Genesee County is covered by the Ironshore Specialty Insurance policy.

Davison refused to say how much coverage is included at each level.

"I prefer not to divulge that," he said. "That's something that my client likes to keep close to the vest."

County officials refused to release the specific figures and told MLive-The Flint Journal to file a Freedom of Information Act request to get the information. A FOIA request was submitted to the county Tuesday, April 4.

A term of Ironshore's policy required the company be notified in writing "as soon as practical" of a lawsuit that would be likely to involve its policy, according to its lawsuit.

However, Ironshore contends county officials failed to satisfy this condition by waiting to notify it of the case until after jurors reached their verdict on Nov. 3, 2016 -- more than three years after Jennings' lawsuit was initially filed.

Ironshore's lawsuit claims the county and its attorneys should have known the case was likely to involve the excess coverage policy when Jennings' case was filed in 2013 and it alleged nerve injuries, serious burns and severe damage.

Any doubt that the Ironshore policy would be involved should have been removed in July 2015, Ironshore claims, when the trial judge in the Jennings case denied the county's argument it was immune from the lawsuit.

Since notifying Ironshore of the verdict, the lawsuit claims the county and its lawyers have failed to turn over records Ironshore has sought in relation to the Jennings case.

Ironshore also argues it is not responsible for covering the claim because jurors found the jail deputies' actions were "willful, wanton or oppressive" and the county had punitive damages awarded against it.

There were multiple instances of intentional wrongdoing by the deputies, which also excludes Genesee County from coverage, Ironshore argues.

Jennings' lawsuit alleged the jail deputies threw Jennings to the floor, slammed his head against a metal bench, kicked and punched him while he was on the ground, sprayed pepper spray into his mouth and face at close range and placed him in a restraint chair with a hood over his face for several minutes.

Jennings was also strapped down to a restraint bed face down in a cell for more than two hours. The lawsuit claimed the alleged attack was unprovoked and began as Jennings was being searched.

After more than a two-week trial and nearly two days of deliberations, an eight-member jury concluded the deputies used excessive force against Jennings and awarded him past damages of $10.42 million and future damages of $7.21 million, according to a news release from the court.

Jurors reached the verdict against deputies Patrick Fuller, David Kenamer, Mark Wing, Jason White and Lt. Robert Nuckolls.

The jury also awarded punitive damages to Jennings from each defendant as follows:

Fuller -- $5 million.

Kenamer -- $4 million.

Wing -- $3 million.

White -- $2 million.

Nuckolls -- $5 million.

Attorneys representing the five guards have appealed the decision and in multiple motions filed in December with the Detroit U.S. District Court say the two-week jury trial was conducted improperly and that the $36.6 million decision was improper.

The motions are still pending.

Davison said the lawsuit from Ironshore isn't unexpected.

"It is a common way for insurance companies and their insured to resolve their differences," he said. "I prefer to try my cases in the court, not in the press."

An insurance policy is a contract between the insurance company and its policyholder, according to Pet Kuhnmuench, executive director of Insurance Institute of Michigan.

"In exchange for coverage, the insurance company requires the policyholder to adhere to provisions in the policy," he said. "If those provisions are not met, there may not be coverage.

"An insurance policy is a not a blanket of coverage because the cost of such a product would be out of reach. An insurance policy insures specific risks that are detailed in the policy language and also the responsibilities of the policyholder for obtaining that coverage."