Lawyers to push ahead for rockslide damages

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

Two lawyers representing more than 40 people who were injured or who lost relatives in the 1999 rock fall at Sacred Falls State Park said yesterday they plan to go to court to seek damages despite an announcement Sunday that the state will appeal a court ruling that found the state negligent in the case.

Eight people were killed and 42 injured in the rockslide.

State Attorney General Earl Anzai issued a press release Sunday saying his office will appeal a Sept. 24 ruling by Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario that the state did not adequately warn hikers that they could be killed or injured by falling rocks.

Anzai said he believes the nine warning signs that were posted the day of the accident were adequate.

But attorneys Arthur Park and Larry Remillard, who sued the state successfully on behalf of the Sacred Falls victims and their relatives, said they plan to return to court Jan. 23 to establish how much money each their clients should receive. They are expected to ask for millions of dollars.

Park and Remillard said they expect the state to ask for a court ruling that the damages portion of the case be put on hold while the state appeals Del Rosario's ruling on the liability aspects. But the two said they would object to such a move and believe the damages portion of the trial should proceed as scheduled.

Since Del Rosario's ruling in September, the state has met with them just once and did not put a formal settlement proposal on the table, Park and Remillard said. They said they are not asking for any more money for their clients than they did before the case went to trial, even though they prevailed on the liability issue.