Indiana stage collapse survivors settle for $50 million: lawyers

(Reuters) - Survivors and bereaved family members of a deadly August 2011 Indiana State Fair stage collapse have reached a settlement totaling nearly $50 million, plaintiffs' lawyers said on Friday. The settlement includes compensation for Alisha Brennon of Chicago, as the surviving spouse of Christina Santiago, as well as compensation for her own injuries. The payment for the surviving member of a lesbian couple in a civil union could be precedent-setting in the state, the lawyers said. "This is an historic settlement," said Bryan Bradley of the Kenneth J. Allen Law Group, in a statement. As Santiago's domestic partner, Brennon will receive compensation, it said. The outdoor concert stage at the Indiana State Fair collapsed in heavy wind on Aug. 13, 2011, just before the country duo Sugarland was set to perform. Seven people were killed. The settlement includes $11 million previously paid by the state of Indiana and resolves the claims arising from all seven deaths and over 58 injuries against 19 of the 20 defendants in the case, the plaintiffs' lawyers said. Santiago, an activist and LGBT advocate in the Chicago gay and lesbian community, was manager of the Lesbian Community Care Project at the Howard Brown Health Center in the city's Uptown neighborhood, the lawyers said. Brennon and Santiago were among the first same-sex couples to enter into a civil union in Illinois, before gay marriage became legal in that state. Indiana's ban on gay marriage was ruled unconstitutional earlier this year. In 2012, Indiana officials fined and cited the State Fair Commission, a stagehands union and a private company for safety violations over the collapse. (Reporting by Mary Wisniewski and Mark Guarino; Editing by Jon Herskovitz and Gunna Dickson)