Minot derailment checks still not in the mail

By BLAKE NICHOLSON

Associated Press Writer

Three months after a judge approved the settlement of a class action lawsuit in a 2002 derailment and chemical spill on the edge of Minot, residents are still waiting for checks.

U.S. District Judge Dan Hovland in October gave final approval to the $7 million settlement, potentially affecting thousands of Minot-area residents. Of the total, $2.9 million is to go to the plaintiffs' attorneys and the rest to people hurt by the January 2002 anhydrous ammonia cloud that drifted over the city after the derailment, killing one man who tried to escape the fumes and sending others to the hospital.

Attorneys had speculated that checks from Canadian Pacific Railway might be sent out by Thanksgiving, then later amended the guess to Christmas and then to sometime after New Year's.

Now, "Unfortunately, my best guess is that it will likely be another couple of months before all this can be finalized and checks issued," Mike Miller, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, said this week.

Chanhassen, Minn.-based Analytics Inc., a consulting firm that administers class action settlements, is determining how many of the roughly 4,000 people who submitted claims under the Minot settlement are eligible for money.

The settlement does not include people who filed individual lawsuits against the railroad, nor 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 Feb. 17, 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.

People eligible for money under the class action settlement are likely to each get around $1,000. The three lead plaintiffs each get $25,000.

Analytics has never said how long it might take to go through the list of claimants and determine eligibility. Steven Mueller, manager of claims operations, declined to say this week when checks might be mailed. He referred questions to the plaintiffs' attorneys.

Miller said Analytics is facing a big job in determining how many claimants signed the railroad's release forms after the cooling-off period.

Analytics' Web site asks people to "please be patient," and says information about when settlement payments will be mailed will be updated "at the appropriate time."

Separately, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has formally dismissed an appeal of a March 2006 Hovland ruling in the case. Hovland dismissed the class action lawsuit, ruling that the Federal Railroad Safety Act protects the railroad from such lawsuits.

Miller appealed the ruling a few months later. The appeal became moot after the settlement approved by Hovland last fall.

A bill signed by President Bush last August says the Federal Railroad Safety Act does not prevent people from collecting in personal-injury lawsuits brought against railroads. The change is retroactive to Jan. 18, 2002, the date of the Minot derailment.