Updated 1 p.m.
PROVIDENCE -- Attorneys for The Station nightclub owners have three
weeks to prepare briefs explaining why they believe a fine of more than
$1 million for the owners' failure to carry workers' compensation
insurance was inappropriate.
Workers' Compensation Court Judge Bruce Morin today ordered the lawyers
for club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian to submit the briefs by
May 23.
The Derderians are challenging a $1.06 million fine they received for
failing to carry the required workers' comp insurance. The penalty is
the highest workers' compensation insurance fine ever imposed in Rhode
Island.
The West Warwick club was destroyed Feb. 20 in a fire that killed 99
people and injured nearly 200 others. The fire was ignited by a
pyrotechnic display set off to accompany the start of a performance by
the band Great White.
Lawyer Jeffrey Pine, who represents Jeffrey Derderian, has said there
were about 16 employees working at The Station that night, four of whom
died. It's unclear how many employees were injured.
The state will also submit papers outlining why it fined the Derderians
the maximum penalty -- which amounts to $1,000 a day for the nearly
three years the brothers owned the club.
Once the briefs are received by the Workers' Compensation Court,
attorneys from both sides will have one week to reply to each other's
filings.
The judge will then make a decision based on the briefs.
"I don't think any oral arguments will be necessary," said Pine.
Pine and Kathleen Hagerty, Michael Derderian's lawyer, have acknowledged
the brothers did not have the required insurance. But they say the fine
the state imposed is excessive and unprecedented.
Hagerty called the state Department of Labor and Training's decision a
"knee jerk reaction to the ultimate tragedy" at The Station, where 99
people died in a fire.
"Obviously, the devastation that occurred was not a result of the
Derderians not having workers' compensation insurance," she said.
Bernard Healy, an associate lawyer for the labor department, has said
the Derderians' case has received the same treatment as others, and the
severity of the violation warrants the penalty.
The fire was the worst in the state's history, and one of the worst
nightclub disasters in the country.
