11 April 2008
Minot Derailment Checks to be Mailed Soon
Minot North Dakota USA - Minot residents affected by a
train derailment and chemical spill more than six years ago should have lawsuit settlement checks in their mailboxes by early next
month.
Half a year has passed since U.S. District Judge Dan Hovland approved a $7 million class action settlement in the case.
"The administration of (the settlement) was way more complicated than we expected," said Fargo attorney Mike Miller, one of
the plaintiffs' lawyers. "It will be a big relief. I can't wait until the folks in Minot finally get paid."
Chanhassen, Minn.-based Analytics Inc., a consulting firm that is administering the settlement, has been working to
determine how many of the roughly 4,000 people who submitted claims under the settlement with Canadian Pacific Railway are eligible for
money.
A Web site set up by the firm said officials are in the "final phases" of the process, and that checks should be mailed in
late April. Steven Mueller, manager of claims operations for Analytics, referred questions to the attorneys for the plaintiffs.
Attorneys had initially speculated that checks might be sent out by last Thanksgiving, then later amended the guess to Christmas and
then to sometime after New Year's.
Gordon Rudd Jr., a plaintiffs' attorney in Minneapolis, where Calgary, Alberta-based Canadian Pacific has its U.S.
headquarters, said the administration of the settlement took months longer than expected in large part because officials did not
automatically reject claim forms that were improperly filled out.
"We've made every effort to ensure that if people are eligible, that they get to participate," he said.
Each of the claimants gets an equal share of the settlement. Because of that, all of the claims have to be final and the payment amount
calculated before any checks can be sent out, Rudd said.
Neither he nor Miller knew the number of people ruled eligible to receive money, and Mueller declined to say.
If the number remains around 4,000, each would receive about $1,000. The three lead plaintiffs each get $25,000, and the plaintiff's
attorneys get a total of $2.9 million - leaving about $4 million of the $7 million settlement to be divided among the class action
plaintiffs.
The cloud of toxic anhydrous ammonia that drifted over Minot after the 18 Jan 2002, derailment on the edge of the city
killed one man who tried to escape the fumes and sent hundreds to the hospital with eye and breathing problems.
The legal battle afterward lingered for years and eventually prompted Congress to pass legislation saying people can bring
personal-injury lawsuits against railroads in state court under certain circumstances. The change was retroactive to the
date of the Minot derailment, which the National Transportation Safety Board said was the result of inadequate track maintenance and
inspections on the part of the railroad. Canadian Pacific disputed the finding.
Attorneys for the Minot residents credited the action by Congress with paving the way for the class action lawsuit settlement. Canadian
Pacific has since appealed the new law, saying it is unconstitutional. The matter is pending before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in St. Louis.
The settlement in the class action case does not include people who filed individual lawsuits against the railroad, or the 228 people
who opted out of the class action case to pursue their own lawsuits.
The settlement also excludes people who signed releases of liability for the railroad after 17 Feb 2002, a month after the
derailment. The 30-day "cooling-off" period is a matter of law. The railroad said earlier that the
people who signed those releases each received several hundred dollars.
Rudd said he will be relieved when the class action settlement is fully processed.
"It's been a long road. We're glad to see it coming to a fair conclusion," he said. "The end of April is it. (The
checks) are going out."
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