Heirs of other air crash victims seek payment

May 14, 2008  --  Got something to say?
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MANILA - North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel F. Pinol whose sister-in-law, nephew and niece perished in the Air Philippines flight 541 crash in Davao 8 years ago said the families of 21 victims not included in the $165 million compensation package will seek a share of the payment.

They missed out on the compensation for the 110 other victims because they had accepted the $25,000 to $50,000 indemnity heirs received from the airline’s insurance immediately after the crash.

PiÒol said he will discuss the issue with officials of American law firm Nolan Law Group. He is scheduled to fly to Chicago on May 5 to discuss with American lawyers the plight of the 21 victims’ families.

Beth C. Lu, sister of one victim, said it was painful for the family when it heard that other families were to receive a large sum from an out-of-court settlement in Chicago. Ms. Lu claimed her family only knew of the settlement from news reports.
She said her mother signed a document when the airline company handed her an amount for the death of her brother.
Patricio F. PiÒol, a retired police official and older brother of the North Cotabato vice-governor, said the government at first claimed the accident was caused by pilot error.

The PiÒols haled the case to the Court of Appeals and asked for the formation of an independent lawyer, which was not granted. Several months later, the younger PiÒol then met lawyer Manuel von Ribbeck of the Nolan Law Group. This paved the way for the filing of the case in a Chicago court as one of those defendants of the case, AAR Corp., the company that leased the Boeing 737-200 aircraft to Air Philippines, was also based in Chicago.

Flight 541 crashed in Barangay Camudmud, Island Garden City of Samal on April 19, 2000. All 131 passengers and crew died.
CHICAGO, Illinois - On April 19, survivors of the ill-fated Air Philippine Flight 541 will be commemorating the eighth anniversary of the plane that exploded on impact off a 577-foot hill in Samal Island near Davao City in the Philippines.

Unlike the previous anniversariesommemorations, the survivors of the 110 of the 131 victims, who died in that early morning plane crash, however, will be looking forward to a more cheerful commemoration this year.

They are in line to receive one of the biggest individual settlements in the world, an average of about $1.25-M for each beneficiary. But these beneficiaries of the $165-M court supervised settlement from the ill-fated Air Philippine Flight 541 will not yet be able to see the color of their money this coming Saturday. Not yet. Perhaps, they will have to wait for “three to four weeks.”

“We are trying very hard to send away the monies of these beneficiaries. But the remaining paperwork and court issues will be
worked out perhaps at least another three to four weeks, as the court wants to be sure that each family has a bank account somewhere where funds can be wired by the settlement trust in Chicago.” according to Atty. Gerald C. Stern, one of the lawyers, who represented the class action suit in the biggest airplane disaster settlements in Asia.

Aside from Mr. Stern, a name partner of California’s San Francisco-Oakland-based Sterns & Walker Aviation Attorneys, the others
involved in the case are the Chicago-based Nolan Law Group, the Bowles & Verna LLP of Walnut Creek and the O?Reilley & Danko Law Offices in San Mateo.

“Some of the beneficiaries don’t even have bank accounts, so there is no way that we can wire the money to them,” Stern told this reporter in a phone interview.

Atty. Michael P. Verna clarified in an email that “each family receives an amount to compensate for their own loss, and not all losses are the same, so not all cases settled for the same amount. The global figure of $165-M for 110 families is correct, but that does not mean each family gets $1.5-M just because it is the average amount.”

Verna added, “The 30 percent (attorney’s fee in contingency arrangement) is wrong as well. The court will decide the fee percentage for the US attorneys, and (the court) has not signed any award yet.?

Mr. Stern explained that in the case of a fireman, who died in the crash and who left behind three children, the three minor beneficiaries will be getting more than $1.5-M because they depended on the income of their father.


Posted by News Team | Filed Under Philippine News 

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