It was a quiet courtroom Monday when a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the heirs and next-of-kin of Joe Harlow was officially settled.
Attorney Harry Sieben stood alone in the 12th-floor room before Ramsey County District Judge Gregg Johnson as a case involving one of the city's most incomparable tragedies came to a close.
Harlow, 34, was one of two sewer workers swept to his death when a sudden downpour flooded the St. Paul sewer system on July 26, 2007.
Johnson allowed terms of the settlement to be kept private.
Harlow's family sued the city of St. Paul and Charles A. Nelson & Associates Inc., doing business as CNA Consulting Engineers. CNA was the company that contracted with the city to repair the storm tunnels. Harlow and Dave Yasis, 23, the other victim, were employed by Lametti & Sons of Hugo, which did the actual sewer rehabilitation work.
The case had been scheduled to go to trial in April. Harlow's family is "very glad it's over," Sieben said after a short court hearing. "They like the feeling of having all aspects of this terrible tragedy put to rest," he said.
Minutes earlier, Sieben told Judge Johnson that Harlow's widow, Sara, of Plainview, Minn., had prepared a "petition for distribution" that specified who would receive financial compensation and how much each would receive. Johnson had reviewed and signed the settlement by mid-afternoon.
Harlow of Plainview, Minn., and Yasis of Maplewood died when the mid-afternoon downpour carried them from the tunnels in the city's Frogtown area into the Mississippi River. They had been among six workers who gave up waiting for a slow crane-and-hoist system in the "Avon shaft," rushing instead for a ladder more than two blocks away. Four employees made it up safety, and then noticed that Harlow and Yasis were missing.
