When they added up all the losses incurred by survivors of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse and the families of those who died, the compensation panel came up with a number exceeding $99 million.
That was almost three times the size of the available state fund -- $36.6 million.
Details of how the panel got from the larger figure to the smaller were shared Tuesday with the House of Representative's state government finance division, which had asked the panel, survivors and other lawyers for feedback on how well the unusual fund worked.
Subtracting expenses already paid by medical plans, worker's compensation, and the like, the three-lawyer panel got much closer but still wanted to give out $9.7 million more than it had.
"I thought the process went very, very well and very, very smooth," said Jennifer Holmes, who lost her husband, Patrick, in the Aug. 1, 2007, disaster. The panel and other lawyers "did an awesome job of doing what they could to help us."
Had the fund not been set up, the state's total liability for the collapse would've been capped at $1 million. Divided among the 179 claims, that would have worked out to only several thousand dollars per person, said Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley and one of the authors of the law that created the fund.
Settlements ranged from $4,500 for those who suffered only minor injuries or property damage to more than $2 million for the most seriously hurt.
In more than 30 years of practicing law, Steve Kirsch of the Special Master Panel said he had never experienced anything like "the three or four months that we went through and listening to these survivors testify."
