9 October 2007
Settlement in 2002 Derailment Will End Wrangling for Many
Bismarck North Dakota USA - A deadly derailment on the
edge of Minot has been fought from the courtroom to Congress over the past six years. For many, the legal wrangling is ending with a
judge's final approval of a $7 million class action lawsuit settlement.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland is expected to give that approval Tuesday. He issued a preliminary endorsement in July.
"The adversaries began by tooth and nail and ended by standing on scorched earth," plaintiffs' attorneys say in court
documents filed this month in support of the settlement. "Both sides encountered seismic victories and stunning defeats."
For Minot residents who continue to pursue individual lawsuits, the battle with Canadian Pacific Railway has no end in sight.
"We just don't know," said Tom Lundeen, who has acted for years as an unofficial spokesman for those injured in the
18 Jan 2002, derailment and chemical spill that killed one man who tried to escape the fumes and sent hundreds to the
hospital with eye and breathing problems.
"That's what's so frustrating. It's been so long," Lundeen said.
Under terms of the class action settlement expected to be approved Tuesday, the plaintiffs' attorneys will get $2.9 million in fees and
expenses, and the rest of the money will be shared equally by up to about 18,800 people who were mailed settlement notices.
"My best guess right now is that we're going to be looking at about 2,000 (people)," Mike Miller, one of the plaintiffs'
attorneys in Fargo, told The Associated Press.
That would mean each person would get about $2,000. The three lead plaintiffs each would get $25,000.
The final number of people who will get money will not be known until 8 Nov 2007, the deadline to submit a claim. The
deadline for people to opt out of the settlement has already passed. Court documents show that 228 people opted out, which allows them
to move forward with individual lawsuits.
"Their belief is they will do better outside of the class," said Minot lawyer Collin Dobrovolny, who represents some people
who have sued Canadian Pacific individually.
The class action settlement is only for people who did not earlier file individual lawsuits. The unsettled cases of those who did,
including Lundeen, are tied up in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Dobrovolny said both sides are waiting for the judges to interpret a law passed by Congress and signed by President Bush on
3 Aug 2007.
A provision of a homeland security bill says that the Federal Railroad Safety Act does not prevent people from collecting in
personal-injury lawsuits brought against railroads. The change is retroactive to the date of the Minot derailment, which
the National Transportation Safety Board said was the result of inadequate track maintenance and inspections.
Hovland ruled in March 2006 that the railroad act protected Canadian Pacific from lawsuits such as those filed after the Minot wreck.
He also called the law "inherently unfair," prompting some members of Congress to change it.
Plaintiffs' attorneys say in court documents that they believe "it was the likely passage" of the proposal by Congress that
paved the way for the class action settlement. The railroad may be less generous in the future, they said.
Canadian Pacific attorney Tim Thornton told The Associated Press that the railroad believes the new law is unconstitutional.
In July, Thornton said the railroad had settled more than 1,000 individual lawsuits stemming from the derailment and hoped to be down
to about 20 by Labor Day. He said in a recent interview that including the 228 people who opted out of the class action settlement,
"we've got 300-plus individual claimants left."
"We'll settle the ones we can, and try the ones we can't settle," he said.
The class action settlement, once approved, will be followed by a 30-day period in which people can appeal, Miller
said.
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