In a win for those who were affected by the Flint water crisis, District Judge Judith E. Levy of the Eastern District of Michigan approved a partial settlement on Wednesday in a case brought by residents of the Michigan city. The settlement provides relief for those affected when a change in water source and lines contaminated the water in Flint with lead, causing health problems particularly for children.
The approved partial settlement “provides compensation to tens of thousands of people who were impacted by exposure to lead, legionella, and other contaminants from the City of Flint’s municipal water supply system during the events now known as the Flint Water Crisis.” The settling defendants include the State of Michigan and its individual officials, the City of Flint and its related defendants, and various health services; however, not all of the defendants participated in the settlement.
This settlement will resolve the thousands of claims pending in this court, the Genesee County Circuit Court and the State of Michigan Court of Claims, involving both class action and non-class action litigation. According to the opinion and order, the $626.25 million that Michigan will pay “is one of the largest settlements in the State’s history.”
Pursuant to the agreement, the settlement amounts will be placed in a qualified settlement fund under which the state defendants will pay $600 million, the Flint defendants will pay $20 million, others will pay $6.25 million. The FWC Qualified Settlement Fund has six sub-qualified funds. Children under six will receive 64.5% of the funds;, 10% is designated for minors between seven and 11 and 5% is for minors 12 to 17. Another 15% is earmarked for adults over 18 at the time of exposure, 3% for residential property owners and renters and 0.5% for business owners. $35 million is to be set aside for future minor plaintiffs and 2% of the net funds will be set aside for the Programmatic Relief, providing special education services for qualifying individuals.
According to the order, there are 30 settlement categories. The claims administrator is Archer Systems, LLC. The settlement applies to “minors, legally incapacitated individuals, future minor claimants, adults, property owners and renters, and business owners and operators.”
The opinion and order notes that the settlement provides a comprehensive compensation program and timeline in a consistent manner for every qualifying participant regardless of their status as a member of a class or not and represented by their own counsel. Consequently, the judge denied the objections to the settlement, thus granting final approval of the settlement and class and subclass certification.
Judge Levy preliminarily approved the settlement in January.
The opinion and order noted that the motion for plaintiff’s attorney fees will be addressed separately.
