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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A judge for the Utah Labor Commission this week ordered a subsidiary of Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp. to pay full benefits to the family of a coal miner killed along with five others in a 2007 cave-in.
The administrative law judge ordered Genwal Resources Inc. and Rockwood Casualty Insurance Co. to pay $565 per week for 312 weeks, or about six years, from the date of the accident to the family of Juan Carlos Payan, the Deseret News reported Thursday.
In proceedings that began in November 2007, the family said Payan, 22, was the main source of support for his disabled father, his mother and two young siblings living in the city of Ensenada in Baja California, Mexico.
The companies said they shouldn't have to pay the full benefit amount because Payan had two other siblings working in Utah to help the family.
The commission announced Judge Aurora Holley's order Wednesday. "A preponderance of the evidence shows that petitioners were, at a minimum, partially dependent on decedent at the time of his industrial death," Holley wrote in her ruling. "As a result, petitioners shall be awarded full death benefits."
Bret Gardner, an attorney for Genwal Resources and Rockwood Casualty Insurance, to The Associated Press on Thursday that the companies have no comment because the case is still pending and "has not yet reached its final resolution."
Payan was one of six miners entombed in the Crandall Canyon mine by a collapse on Aug. 6, 2007. Three other people died in a later collapse during a failed attempt to dig the miners out. The mine was permanently shuttered, and the miners' bodies were never recovered.
The lawyer for Payan's family, Edward Havas, had argued at a hearing in September that no records or witnesses could counter the family's claim that Payan was their sole supporter.
The family also said it was entitled to reimbursement for a couple thousand dollars for expenses related to travel required for depositions for the proceedings. But Holley ruled each party is responsible for its own expenses.
Havas said the parties have 30 days to decide if they want to appeal any or all of the order. "The time hasn't gone by enough to say that this is the end of the story," he said. "There may be more."
Gardner said whether Genwal and Rockwood will appeal is under discussion.
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Information from: Deseret News
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