Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 27/05) - The families of nine strike-breaking miners who were killed during a 1992 bomb blast at Giant Mine have been awarded $3.7 million in legal costs.

"Given the nature of the claims advanced by the plaintiffs, the importance of this litigation to the parties and the community cannot be overstated," Justice Arthur Lutz wrote in a decision released Monday.

The ruling comes eight months after a Supreme Court justice awarded the families $11 million following the longest and most expensive civil suit in Northwest Territories history.

Nine underground workers were killed in September 1992 when a home-made bomb planted by disgruntled miner Roger Warren detonated 750 feet below the surface.

Warren was convicted on nine counts of second degree murder, a conviction that touched off a massive lawsuit by the families of the nine slain miners.

They claimed a host of defendants - including Warren, the territorial government, the Canadian Auto Workers Union, Pinkerton Security and Royal Oak Mines - bore financial responsibility for the worst labour killing in Canadian history.

Justice Lutz sided with the families following an eight-month-long trial that featured 65 witnesses, 12,000 pages of transcripts and upwards of 18 lawyers.

In the 70-plus page decision released Monday, Lutz ordered several defendants - including the government and Warren - pay the families $3.7 million in court costs, below their asking price of $5 million.

Former miner Jim O'Neil, who witnessed the underground carnage and was also party to the lawsuit, was awarded about $475,000 in legal costs.

"In my view, counsel for the plaintiffs were neither inefficient nor extravagant at trial," Lutz wrote.

"They faced five times as many counsel opposite on a daily basis... and had to be sufficiently prepared."

The plaintiffs - backed mostly by the government-operated Workers Compensation Board - spent $7.2 million on legal fees, including $1.6 million on correspondence. The WCB paid out a multi-million dollar settlement to the families after the explosion, though precise figures have not been released.

Court documents show the plaintiffs received a 10 per cent volume discount from their lawyers.

The judgement included a breakdown of expenses accumulated by lawyers for the plaintiffs. Among the notable costs are: