Miners.... Sue or settle?

[CoolBreeze]

Massey is offering 3 million to settle with the miners families. Add to that all the charity money still coming in.
Miners cant come close to that in an entire lifetime. Some of the men had already worked almost that long. Not that long ago when a miner died, his family got a couple thousand bucks upfront and maybe $300 a month.

Or.... take to court and sue for (pick a number) and maybe come out with twice as much... or more.

A firefighters family gets 50 Grand for dying in the line of duty and a pension. No law suits.

There is no doubt that some (or all) of the families want to put a financial hurting on Massey to teach them a lesson. (This cannot be done in the firefighting field.) But will a huge financial settlement "fix things"... or down the road cause mining of the future to be done only by robots for the most part?

I guess my point is this: Let's say they go to court and win 25 million each. (The lawyers will have a field day collecting their 30 pieces of silver). Due to this, every man that dies in the future, possibly gets 25 million. (Fault or no fault of the mine owner.... because mining is inherently dangerous.)

Where's the line? is there one? What would you do? Take the settlement or sue?

[genlock]

Do you have to pay taxes on settlements or court judgments?
Or a $50,000 firefighters thing?

It is starting to look like there was some sort of arrangement between MSHA and Massey officials.
Would this include the federal government in any lawsuit?

I would take the 3 mil and leave the area.

[fearpeddler]

nope, no taxes on settlements or judgements....

[fearpeddler]

also, there isn't a death tax in effect right now, so they actually didnt have to pay the government for their spouses/relatives deaths...

[AmpedNow]

I seen this headline in the paper yesterday and asked myself the same question... Would I take the settlement and move on, or go for the gold?

The only way I would take the $3 million would be if it was free and clear of taxes, which would take about half of it before you ever seen it. It would also be instant gratification, allowing you to just move on with life. (And I would definitely move geographically).

Go for the gold if you feel like delaying your gratification in order to wind up with much more. (I don't see how this wouldn't be a slam dunk -- esp with a WV jury). But forget about doing it to "stick it" to Massey. I'm sure they pay huge insurance premiums in order to cover these very accidents, and the soon-to-follow lawsuits. It's just a cost of doing business these days. They won't be put into bankruptcy, even if the settlements total into the hundreds of millions.

But it is a fair question to ask how much is too much... most would say that 1 or even 3 million is not fair compensation. But even the most sympathetic jury would find it unreasonable to award them each $1 billion. Maybe $100 million, but not much more than that.

Any way you slice it, though, it's all more money than many of us will ever see...

[Bar Rat]

I'd want my family to take it (if I had one anyway).

Say they spend half a million on relocating and building/buying a house and transportation and such. That leaves 2.5 million in the bank. With decent investing, that pays for the kids to go to college and the wife to be a mom full time. Plus they get to escape WV and all that reminds them of coal mining.

Does Massey deserve to have it stuck to them? Yeah, I think they do. Let the lawyers find someone else who wants to be a cause. And like it was pointed out, no matter what kind of settlement would be won in a lawsuit, the only really injured party in that case would be the insurance company who took a risk and had it flop.

[jag]

I don't know...

Somehow, it seems a bit...what's the word, here? Tacky...declasse...insensitive, perhaps...that the media are being used (exploited, some might suggest) to discuss something that really is a private issue between each of the miner's families and the coal company. And, by so doing, nobody is represented well--neither the families (who are made to seem impossibly greedy) nor the company (which is made to seem to be dismissive of the survivors while at the same time being "look-at-what-a-good-guy-I am" self-congratulatory).

So, what to do? Good question.

[Dave Allen]

..and now we have that wonderful humanitarian Alan Jackson coming in to do a concert for the families. Give me a break!

[jag]

Yes, but he has reduced his ticket prices so that it's a more affordable venue.

[Dave Allen]

If its a tribute to miners that's one thing, but as I said in a previous post..the miners families DO NOT NEED MONEY, and it pukes me to no end to see people who know nothing about this part of the world or mining to come to the rescue our the poor, poor mining families and the people raising money. What then happens is a bunch of otherwise well-meaning folks who think they are doing the right thing write checks to be given to the poverty striken coal mining families. These families and their grandkids are going to be millionaires, never having to work again. I know the daughter of one of the dead miners who said "we just want these media people to leave us alone". We don't want their charity and we don't want tv and radio stations using us for publicity.

[genlock]

It is my understanding that a kia miner would receive a lump sum equal to his prospective earnings thru retirement.
Don't know who from. Is this true?

[Bob Campbell]

also, there isn't a death tax in effect right now, so they actually didnt have to pay the government for their spouses/relatives deaths...

Actually, there is the so-called "death", actually inheritance tax, in effect. It was just reduced under W.
btw, the inheritance tax effects less than one percent of the population each year.
There's probably not a hundred people in WV who would be effected by it.

[fearpeddler]

it totally expired off the books at the end of 2009, congress hasn't had the time to actually renew it...