According to legal journal The West Virginia Record, terms of the settlements approved by Kanawha County circuit judge Charles King have been sealed and no details were released.
The initial settlements were approved last month, but given the green-light by King on November 16. The suit included the families of Tom Anderson, Jerry Lee Groves, George Junior Hammer, Jesse Jones, Jackie Weaver and Marshall Winans.
The other miners who died in the January 2006 explosion included James Bennett, Marty Bennett, Terry Helms, David Lewis, Martin Toler and Fred Ware Jr. Only one, Randal McCloy, survived.
The families’ legal representative, Allan Karlin, told the State Journal additional lawsuits were previously settled, many of which had stemmed from the way information was managed during the disaster when management incorrectly proclaimed miners had survived the blast.
“The resolutions of these cases do not mean the end for these families,” Karlin told the paper.
“The families have to go back and live their lives with a hole left by the loss of loved ones.”
The Sago Mine disaster took place on January 2, 2006, the result of a methane gas explosion within the underground workings. It took rescuers almost two days to reach the group and sole survivor McCloy.
Federal investigators cited a lightning strike as the most possible cause for the blast.
Owner ICG and Sago’s operating entity Wolf Run Mining are now owned by Arch Coal. Arch officials did not release a public statement on the settlement.
