$21 Million Settlement In Ellison Bay Explosion
By Nick Freimuth | Source: DoorCountyDailyNews.com
A settlement worth approximately $21 million from a civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Green Bay was settled in favor of the family of a Michigan couple killed in the Ellison Bay propane explosion nearly two years ago. The tragedy that took the lives of Patrick and Margaret Higdon on July 10, 2006 moved another step closer to finality with the Federal Court ruling.
According to Stuart Sklar of Fabian, Sklar & King in Farmington Hills, Michigan the plaintiffs in this case were the estates of Patrick and Margaret Higdon, their children James, Patrick and Meghan, Margret’s parents Margery and James Brooks, Margret’s brother Daniel and Cathy Brooks and Margret’s sister Kathy Brooks and Obie Burch. The Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, family was vacationing at the Cedar Grove Resort at the time. Sklar said putting this part of the ordeal behind them was a relief.
Sklar and Ralph Tease of Habush, Habush, and Rottier in Green Bay represented the family. Sklar said the co-council invested a great deal of time and effort in this case.
The family of Patrick and Margaret Higdon has been shown a great deal of respect from the Bloomfield Hills community, according to Sklar.
According to the Associated Press, propane lines for the expansion of the Cedar Grove Resort were installed in 1999. In March 2006, Cedar Grove Resort owners contacted PortSide Construction to upgrade electrical services to the resort docks. When PortSide visited the site in April, propane lines were not identified, nor did a subcontractor for Digger’s Hotline identify them. Two phone lines were identified, but not the buried gas lines.
Arby’s [sic] Construction, a subcontractor for Wisconsin Public Service Corp., dug trenches to install the electric lines July 7 and damaged the buried propane lines, which began leaking into the ground. The Door County district attorney found no evidence for criminal charges.
The Higdons’ suit named those businesses and eight insurance companies as defendants. U.S. District Judge William Griesbach issued his decision Monday.