A settlement has been announced in a legal battle over the payment of lawyers' fees from a trust fund established for the survivors of one of six Worcester firefighters killed in a 1999 warehouse blaze.WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) -- A settlement has been announced in a legal battle over the payment of lawyers' fees from a trust fund established for the survivors of one of six Worcester firefighters killed in a 1999 warehouse blaze.
The suit was filed three years ago by the three sons of Lt. Timothy P. Jackson Sr., after the Worcester Telegram & Gazette Charitable Foundation refused to disburse the Jackson family's share of more than $6.5 million in charitable donations raised for the survivors of the men killed.
Jackson was among the six firefighters who died in the fire that began Dec. 3, 1999, at the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. building.
The foundation gave $1 million each to the other five families, but refused to release the Jacksons' $1 million because family members could not agree among themselves on how the funds were to be allocated.
Attorney Wayne M. LeBlanc, who represented Timothy P. Jackson Jr., confirmed yesterday the dispute had been settled, but said he was prohibited from disclosing its terms.
``As to the terms of the settlement, what I can say is that the Telegram & Gazette has fulfilled its obligations to all the families of the firefighters and to all the people who were so generous through the firefighters' fund,'' said the newspaper's publisher, Bruce S. Bennett, one of the foundation's trustees who had been named in the suit.
