Elko News- Mining QuarterlyToday's article about Queenstake Mining......Richard
Queenstake asks court to dismiss suit
By ADELLA HARDING - Mining Quarterly Editor
Published: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 1:57 PM CST
ELKO — Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp. and subsidiary Queenstake Resources USA Inc. have filed motions asking the U.S. District Court in Reno to dismiss the lawsuit former Queenstake employees earlier filed for severance pay and back medical payments.
The motions also ask the court to dismiss a $5.2 million lien against Queenstake the former employees filed in their effort to recover money still due the 400 employees who lost their jobs when the company shut down the Jerritt Canyon Mine 50 miles north of Elko in August 2008.
“Because the class action was filed, we have to respond,” Elko attorney for Queenstake Gary DiGrazia said Tuesday.
“I’m hopeful they will be able to settle this and pay everyone in a fashion that makes these workers whole. They’ve been waiting over a year now. It would be better if they simply settle,” said Elko attorney Travis Gerber, who is acting for five ex-employees.Meanwhile, the employees will be defending the motions, working with co-counsel Mark Thierman in Reno, Gerber said Tuesday.
He also said roughly 150 other former Queenstake employees have expressed interest in getting their pay and medical benefits and provided information for the class action lawsuit filed by employees Paul Dyer, Kurt Knudsen, Donald Capp, Larry Moon and Steve Volkert.
DiGrazia said Queenstake remains interested in settling with former employees, and there “have been lots of settlements” so far between Queenstake and vendors and suppliers who filed lawsuits for money they were owed when the mine shut down. “They want to settle with everyone.”
Queenstake recently resumed operations at the Jerritt Canyon mill and is looking at restarting underground mining at the site, but the employees let go when the mine abruptly shut down in 2008 are looking for the other half of their severance pay and payment of medical bills pending at the time.
The lawsuit doesn’t dispute that Queenstake paid only 50 percent of the severance pay due the laid-off employees, but lawyers Anthony Hall and Dora Lane of Reno as co-counsel with DiGrazia argue that Yukon-Nevada shouldn’t be named because Queenstake is a wholly owned subsidiary.
They also argue that Yukon-Nevada President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Baldock, former CEO and now Chief Operating Officer Graham Dickson and Chief Financial Officer Shaun Heinrichs shouldn’t be included in the employee lawsuit because “Nevada does not have general or specific personal jurisdiction” over the three.The motions state Baldock and Heinrichs assumed their jobs after the August 2008 mine closure, and Dickson is no longer an officer of Queenstake, and all three are Canadians who only travel to Nevada for business.
“They’re making it appear as though his role is limited,” Gerber said.
“They’re denying they owe anything. We feel a bit irritated they’re making the claim,” ex-employee Dyer said Monday.
The dismissal motions Queenstake filed in November are in lieu of an answer to the suit employees filed, and Gerber said Queenstake will still have to answer the plaintiffs if they lose their motions .
He also said a judge still has to certify the employee lawsuit to make it officially a class action lawsuit.