Expert: Stage collapse payments ‘exceedingly fair’

Indiana did the best it could given its financial constraints to fairly compensate the victims of last year's deadly state fair stage collapse, the man who designed the compensation plan believes.

Victims' compensation specialist Kenneth Feinberg told The Associated Press that officials had limited resources to compensate the families of the seven people killed and the more than 50 people injured in the Aug. 13, 2011, collapse just before the country duo Sugarland was to perform. Indiana limits legal claims against the state to $5 million total per incident, and a charity fund raised about $1 million.

Feinberg, who oversaw victims compensation for the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the BP oil spill, and Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller divided the state's $5 million among victims. The families of the seven people who died were given upward of $300,000 each under the formula they devised. People who were physically injured generally had two-thirds of their medical costs covered by the state.

"It's one thing when you have an unlimited source of funds," Feinberg said in a phone interview Monday, "But when you have a limited fund like you had in Indiana … then seeking some sort of alternative system to allocate limited resources makes sense for everybody."

Critics realized early on that $5 million wouldn't be enough to compensate victims and survivors for all of their expenses, and support built for finding a way for the state to provide additional funds.

Early this year, state legislators approved an additional $6 million for victims. Zoeller's plan to link the state money to a settlement with companies who faced lawsuits over the disaster fell apart, but Feinberg, who wasn't involved in that phase, says it still was a good idea because victims would have received more money.

An arbitration panel of three lawyers was set up in mid-August to ration out the additional state money to victims. Bryan Corbin, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said Tuesday that the panel is using three categories laid out by the statute passed in March on the final day of the 2012 legislative session.

The families of the seven people who died will be given the balance of the $700,000 individual limit set by Indiana law. Those with injuries that aren't considered permanent, whose medical bills were covered at a 65-percent rate under the first state payout, will be reimbursed for 100 percent of their out-of-pocket expenses.

The arbitration panel will have to weigh the seriousness of victims who suffered paralysis, permanent physical trauma, or who require ongoing, long-term care, said Bill Baten, the panel's chairman. The panel is holding hearings so that claimants can outline their needs. Those who qualify will be paid based on the group's judgment of their need from the money that's left after the first two categories of victims are reimbursed, Baten said. The panel hopes to complete its work in October.

"It seems like as fair a process as you could hope for," Baten said.

Offers were extended to 62 claimants to participate in the $6 million phase, Corbin said. Of those, 58 have accepted, he said.

One of Indianapolis attorney Carl Brizzi's clients is the wife of Glenn Goodrich, a security guard who died in the accident. "Glenn was the main breadwinner," Brizzi said Tuesday. "The money is literally going toward living."

He added, "Some of the victims of the state fair have injuries that are catastrophic in terms of ongoing care … and future care."

Feinberg said it's important to be scrupulously fair in distributing compensation for disaster victims. "One thing you don't do is try to determine the moral integrity of any human being who has died … no human being can do that," he said.

"You run into trouble if you try to say that a priest is more worthy of compensation than a waiter or a busboy. Don't go there, don't go there," Feinberg said.

While it might seem impossible to set a dollar value on a human life, judges and juries do it every day, he said.

"It's always rough justice," Feinberg said. "It's always going to be rough justice."