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 Jam! Music reports that the owners of a nightclub where a 2003 fire killed 100 people have
reached a tentative US$813,000 settlement with survivors and relatives
of those killed, the latest in a flurry of agreements made in the last
year to resolve lawsuits over the deadly blaze.
The settlement offer from Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, revealed in
court papers Wednesday, will be covered by their insurance policy. The
brothers have received bankruptcy protection that shielded them from
lawsuits.
More than $175 million has now been offered by dozens of defendants
to the more than 300 people suing over the Feb. 20, 2003, fire at The
Station nightclub in West Warwick. It began when pyrotechnics ignited
cheap packaging foam the Derderians had installed as soundproofing.
Members of Great White, the 1980s rock band whose tour manager shot
off the pyrotechnics at the start of a concert, agreed to a separate $1
million settlement in court papers filed Tuesday. The band's insurer is
covering the settlement.
"In terms of the case itself, really, the plaintiffs are closing the
circle here," said Anthony DeMarco, a lawyer for the Derderians.
The settlement still requires the approval of the federal bankruptcy
court, the judge overseeing the lawsuits and the hundreds of people who
are suing.
The Derderians were accused in the lawsuits of operating an unsafe
nightclub, where an exit door swung the wrong way, overcrowding was
permitted and foam that experts said burned like gasoline lined the
walls near the stage.
Read the full story here.
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