Columbia Gas Disaster Settlement: What You Need To Know

NORTH ANDOVER, MA — Anyone who lives or owns a business in Andover, North Andover and Lawrence and was affected by the Sept. 13 gas explosions will be eligible for money under a settlement announced Monday. That includes residents and business owners who have never filed a claim, contacted an attorney or joined one of the class action lawsuits against Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, which announced the $143 million settlement ahead of its parent company's second quarter earnings release this week. And residents who were frustrated by the claims process set up last fall and overseen by Columbia Gas got an additional dose of good news on Monday.

"The details of claim processing will be worked out but the goal is to have a streamlined claims process handled by a neutral third party (not CG) that will be relatively easy and straightforward," Patrick Haines, one of the attorneys that handled a class action claim against Columbia and its parent company, NiSource Inc., said in a Facebook post.

The settlement does not include personal injury claims, which will be handled separately, Haines said. Once the courts sign off on the agreement, which settles all class action lawsuits against the company stemming from the Sept. 13 gas explosions, attorneys and the third party will categorize people into different categories depending on how affected they were by the disaster. Those categories will be used to determine payouts.

Here are some questions that have been asked since the settlement was announced Monday morning, and our best effort to answer them.

Do I need an attorney to file a claim?

No. The wording of the settlement covers all impacted parties, whether or not they hired an attorney or joined a class action. Haines and other lawyers who filed class action lawsuits will likely offer assistance to their clients who did sign up for the class action lawsuit when they go to file their claims.

How much will I get?

The monetary awards will be determined by the third party overseeing claims, and will likely based the degree of damage a person or business suffered. But so far, exact dollar amounts of the awards for individuals have not been released.

Can I still file claims under the old process?

Columbia Gas set up claims centers in all three communities immediately after the Sept. 13 gas explosions. The company said Monday it will continue to process and pay claims filed under that process.

So Columbia Gas only has to pay $143 million?

Not quite -- the $143 million is just the amount is paying to settle all of the class action lawsuits filed against it. The company is actually paying closer to $1 billion, including the claims it has already paid, the costs of restoration work and housing residents who could not return home after the gas explosions and the cost of the lawsuits it has already settled.

In May, the company agreed to an $80 million settlement with Lawrence, Andover and North Andover, the communities where the explosions happened. And in July, the utility agreed to a settlement with the family of Leonel Rondon, 18, of Lawrence. He was killed when a chimney collapsed and crushed his sport utility vehicle as he was sitting in it while parked in his driveway.

NiSource said it will update the amount of money it has paid so far on Wednesday, when it releases its second-quarter earnings report.

Where does the $143 million figure come from?

The settlement is the result of a voluntary mediation process that included "good faith negotiations over several months." Attorneys from all the class action lawsuits against the company participated in the negotiations and signed off on the final agreement.