Utah Landmark Legal Settlements
Death lawsuit settled By University Of Utah
The University of Utah settled a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the families of seven Chinese scholars that were killed in a fatal 2003 van rollover accident. State officials agreed to pay the plaintiffs about $500,000. At the time of the accident the group was en route from Buffalo, N.Y., to Washington, D.C.
Attorneys for the families alleged the university acted negligently by contracting with an unlicensed travel business in New York, which in turn hired a driver unqualified to pilot the over-sized van that veered off a snow-covered Pennsylvania highway and crashed into a tree.
Utah to pay $33M to settle Navajo trust fund case
A lawsuit over Utah's management of a trust fund for Navajos in San Juan County ended in a $33 million settlement.
Eight people filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of San Juan County's 8,000 Navajos in 1992, challenging the state's management of a trust fund the federal government created in 1933. The state was appointed to manage the fund.
Money for the trust came from oil found on Navajo land. More than a third of the royalties were supposed to be deposited into the fund for the health, education and welfare of Navajos in the county. The lawsuit alleged Utah had mismanaged the fund.
Settlement in Utah mine collapse lawsuits
The owner and operator of Utah's Crandall Canyon mine settled lawsuits filed by the families of the miners and rescuers killed or injured by two cave-ins in 2007.
Six miners were trapped by a collapse at Crandall Canyon on Aug. 6, 2007. Another collapse 10 days later killed three rescuers, including a federal mining inspector, and injured three others.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but it was reportedly the largest in Utah mining history.
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