Lawmakers OK deal with U. and miners

Utah legislative leaders have approved the settlement an eight-year-long lawsuit against the University of Utah over health care provided to disabled miners.

As part of the settlement, the lawyers for the United Mine Workers of America, who sued the state, will be paid $800,000 over several years, the money coming from a land-grant trust fund set up at statehood for the benefit of disabled miners, said assistant attorney general Barry Lawrence.

In addition, the U. agrees to set up a special health care program for any disabled miners and will also give scholarships to the children and grandchildren of any disabled miners — two scholarships a year for 10 years — to qualifying students.

Legislative leaders approved the settlement Tuesday.

"This is a great settlement of a situation that's been going on since the 1960s," said Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich, D-Price.

Lawrence said no one really knows how many disabled miners are out there. But over the next six months a public relations campaign will be conducted to find as many as possible and inform them about the new health-care program.

At statehood, around 100,000 acres of land was set aside to generate proceeds to go into a special trust fund for miners hurt on the job. Through 1957, little was done with the program, said Lawrence. Then the 1960 Legislature assigned the U. and its hospital to use the trust funds for the miners.

Disagreements arose over how the trust fund, administered by the State Trust Lands Administration, was being handled. Claiming that as much as $20 million that should have gone into the fund didn't make it there, the miners' union filed suit. The case went all the way through the federal courts to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which then ordered it filed in state court. While the attorneys fees may seem large, the union attorneys have been working on the case for nearly a decade, Lawrence said.

The miner trust fund now has $4.8 million. Even though no one can say how many disabled miners there are or the extent of their medical needs, Lawrence said U. officials believe they can take care of miners' health-care costs — the ones not covered by the miners' personal health insurance.

Should the trust fund become insolvent, U. attorneys will go back to court to seek a change in the court settlement. Taxpayers will not get stuck with any loses, he said.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com

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