LIHU‘E — The total amount of the settlement in the Ka Loko Reservoir civil cases, involving wrongful-death and property-damage claims, is $25.4 million, officials said Wednesday. A global settlement was reached in 2009 and announced at the end of October,
LIHU‘E — The total amount of the settlement in the Ka Loko Reservoir civil cases, involving wrongful-death and property-damage claims, is $25.4 million, officials said Wednesday.
A global settlement was reached in 2009 and announced at the end of October, after 5th Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe approved the settlement.
Terms of the settlement at that time were sealed, but the state filed a motion to unseal its share of the settlement, $1.5 million, and the county this year filed a motion to unseal its share of the settlement.
Watanabe on Tuesday ordered the county’s portion of the settlement amount to be released. County Attorney Al Castillo said Wednesday that he is waiting for the specific court order and an opinion from the state Office of Information Practices for guidance on which portions of the county settlement he will be authorized to release.
Because a significant part of the county’s portion is expected to be paid by the county’s private insurance agency, it’s possible that amount won’t have to be made public, he said.
It is anticipated that the amount of the county’s share of the settlement coming from county coffers will be released, Castillo said.
Bridget Holthus, special assistant to state Attorney General Mark Bennett, confirmed the total settlement amount Wednesday, saying the $25.4 million figure came from attorneys for the plaintiffs.
Teresa Tico, one of the attorneys for plaintiffs including Cynthia and Bruce Fehring, Bette Midler and others who lost loved ones and personal property when the reservoir failed March 14, 2006, could not be reached for comment or confirmation on the total settlement amount Wednesday.
A provision in the Ka Loko Dam Litigation Global Settlement, Release, and Indemnification Agreement, under the heading of “confidentiality,” states, “The total consideration amount paid to all Releasors (plaintiffs) by all Releasees (defendants), shall not be confidential.”
Armed with that information, The Garden Island filed written requests for access to a government record both with Bennett and Castillo, and Wednesday received the information from Holthus on the total settlement amount.
The State of Hawai‘i and County of Kaua‘i are “releasees” in the civil cases.
James Pflueger, 83, retired Honolulu car dealer and part-owner of Ka Loko Reservoir, which is mauka of Kuhio Highway near Kilauea, is scheduled for a jury trial in April on charges of seven counts of manslaughter for the deaths of seven Kauaians on March 14, 2006, when the earthen reservoir failed and sent hundreds of millions of gallons of water rushing makai across Kuhio Highway into Wailapa Stream, then Kilauea Stream and eventually into the ocean, taking with it trees, property and the seven people asleep in their homes.
Some of the bodies were never found.
Those who died in the incident include Alan Gareth Dingwall, Daniel Jay Arroyo, Rowan Grey Makana Fehring-Dingwall, Aurora Solveig Fehring, Christina Michelle McNees (and her unborn baby, known in court documents as Baby Doe McNees), Timothy Wendell Noonan Jr. and Carl Wayne Rotstein.
Bennett has argued before 5th Circuit Judge Randal Valenciano in the criminal cases that Pflueger’s filling in of the Ka Loko spillway, a safety feature, led to the reservoir’s failure and the resulting release of the deadly water.
William McCorriston, attorney for Pflueger, said earlier that Pflueger will “fight the criminal case vigorously,” and still feels he has been “unfairly scapegoated” in what still might be proven in court to have been an act of nature and not a negligent human action.
Ka Loko Reservoir failed in 2006 after 40 straight days of rain.
