Victims of Quebec City legionnaire's outbreak may see just $4.5M of $7.5M settlement
The judge who authorized a $7.5-million settlement for victims of the 2012 legionnaires' outbreak in Quebec City is among those expressing astonishment over the percentage the plaintiffs have been asked to pay out in lawyers' fees and court costs.
"Thirty-nine per cent?" Quebec Superior Court Justice Clément Samson asked, wide-eyed, as he read out the terms of the settlement in a Quebec City courtroom Thursday.
That amounts to $3 million of the settlement.
"Even the judge doesn't think it's logical," said Nadia Champagne, whose father died as a result of the outbreak.
The airborne legionella bacteria seeped from cooling towers during the summer of 2012, killing 14 people and affecting more than 180 others.
Quebec's public health authority, the CSQ labour federation, which owned the building with the contaminated cooling towers, and other defendants agreed in September to the $7.5 million compensation package, avoiding a lengthy class action trial.
'Very difficult' case that no one else wanted
Lawyer Jean-Pierre Ménard defended the size of the legal bill, arguing his office took a risk by agreeing to launch a case that other firms considered too complex.
"Lawyers weren't lining up at the courthouse to take on this case. It was a very difficult one," said Ménard.
Ménard said there was a chance he and his firm could have ended up with nothing, after putting more than 4,000 hours of work into the case over the past six years.
The lead plaintiff, Solange Allen, who lost her husband Claude Desjardins to severe pneumonia, said the other plaintiffs did calm down once they heard Ménard's explanations.
"I think they understand where he is coming from, and all the work that had to be done to get to this point," said Allen.
Samson said he'll try to give his final decision about how the settlement is to be distributed by the end of 2018.
Under the current terms, widows of those who died would receive up to $50,000, while direct heirs would get up to $75,000.
Plaintiffs who were made sick by the outbreak and ended up in hospital would be eligible for between $2,500 and $25,000.
