A multimillion dollar lawsuit involving employees of the former Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Co. plant has been settled, just weeks before a five-week trial was scheduled to begin in Eau Claire County Court.

“It has been a long and sometimes frustrating road,” said New Richmond attorney Matthew Biegert, who with others represented the claimants. “We are glad that we were able to resolve the claims without the need for trial or further appeals, and bring some measure of justice to the employees who were harmed and their loved ones.

“We hope that in some small way this represents a step towards safer working conditions for all employees,” Biergert said, adding that the “global settlement” covers two Eau Claire County civil cases totaling 21 claimants.

The settlement amounts were not disclosed, but Biegert said each claimant’s settlement amount was calculated “on a mechanism based to determine the severity of their injuries.”

A number of former employees and their family members and beneficiaries filed the suit in 2006, alleging the former employees’ injuries and deaths resulted from exposure to benzene in the Eau Claire plant that went out of production in 1992.

According to the American Cancer Society, benzene is a flammable liquid that can cause cancer.

Short-term, it can affect the nervous sytem, causing sympotoms such as drowsiness, headaches, tremors and confusion.

Long-term effects include anemia and other blood disorders.

A summary judgment was entered in Eau Claire County Court in 2012 against eight plaintiffs and in favor of Exxon Mobil Corp. on grounds their claims were filed too late.

A state appellate court reversed that ruling, saying there was question as to the three-year statute of limitations for filing the claims.

In June 2015, the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed, saying, in part: “The applicable statute of limitations began to run when the survival claims and wrongful death claims were discovered, provided that the plaintiffs are able to show that they exercised reasonable diligence in investigating and discovering their claims.”

Exxon contended the plaintiffs’ claims were not filed before the expiration of the three-year limit under state law, contending the plaintiffs’ claims could not have accrued later than the deaths of the decedents they represent because the discovery rule in wrongful death and survival claims does not extend to “third parties”; that is, parties other than the decedents.

The plaintiffs countered that their claims did not accrue until they had reason to believe that the defendants were responsible for the injuries giving rise to their claims, arguing that there is no law that limits this application of the discovery rule.