At next TuesdayFriday's MTA meeting (March 20, 2pm, Room 400, City Hall), they'll be moving to pay off five claims. Most are unlitigated, so we can't look up the details; the other two are vehicle-property-damage cases that are pretty standard-issue, at least for Muni. One, Evelyn Bravos versus SF, involves a $3,000 fender-bender in the Richmond; the other, San Francisco Food Bank versus SF, involves a bus crash that did about $18,000 in damage.

Muni is not without defense in the Food Bank fiasco: in their answer to the complaint, Muni claimed that the Food Bank knowingly placed itself at risk, so they refused to pay for the damage. But the bus drifted across traffic, up onto the sidewalk, and through the Food Bank's property; so it's not hard to see why, three litigious years later, Muni's finally picking up the tab.

Other beneficiaries: Loretta Culver, who gets $7,000; City Rent-A-Car and Linda King, who get $13,137.35; and Seth Bernstein, who gets $16,400. Happy payday, everyone!

Other business at the meeting involves a consultation with lawyers about the awesome lawsuit that Dan Noyes had KGO file. The news station is trying to find out who those 25 drivers are who racked up a thousand complains in the last three years, but the drivers' union sued to stop Muni from revealing that info. (We've run into that issue ourselves: as a matter of policy, Muni has always refused to disclose the outcome of any customer service complaint. It's like saying, "waiter, there's a fly in my soup," and the waiter goes, "I'll make a note of it.")

Don't expect to learn anything new about that lawsuit at the meeting; when it's time for a-lawyerin', the MTA kicks the public out and holds a closed session. Probably because the lawyers are really timid and shy.