Last of North Dakota Derailment Money Going to Charity

The last bit of settlement money from a class-action lawsuit over a disastrous train derailment in Minot, N.D., a decade ago is going to a charity near the site of the wreck.

Canadian Pacific Railway about five years ago agreed to pay $7 million to settle claims stemming from the January 2002 derailment. It sent a cloud of toxic anhydrous ammonia farm chemical over North Dakota’s fourth-largest city, killing one man and sending hundreds more in seek of medical help. Just short of $3 million went to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, and about $4 million was doled out to about 3,200 Minot residents.

That left about $7,100. A federal judge this week approved a motion by the plaintiffs to give the money to the Northern Lights Chapter of Habitat for Humanity.