11-02-2025
Confidential settlement revealed in response to Right-to-Know request
VERNON TOWNSHIP — A confidential settlement disbursement approved late last month by Crawford Central School Board with no discussion from board members and no explanation from district officials involved a payment of $652.04 resulting from a class action lawsuit over vaping.
The amount was revealed when the district provided a copy of the settlement disbursement statement last week in response to a Right-to-Know request from The Meadville Tribune.
Superintendent Jenn Galdon had declined to comment when asked about the nature of the payment when it was unanimously approved by board members at their Jan. 27 meeting. The only information provided about the settlement at the meeting as a reference on the agenda to a 'confidential JUUL Marketing Labs Inc. Settlement Disbursement Statement.'
After the meeting, board President Kevin Merritt declined to address the specific details regarding the payment, but said, 'I can tell you this, it wasn't very much money — it was almost like why would you even approve it?'
In fact, Merritt continued, when he learned details of the disbursement from Galdon, he 'practically tried not to laugh.'
Of the $652.04 disbursement, 33 percent went to three law firms involved in the case, including Knox Law Firm of Erie, which represents Crawford Central, as well as a common benefit pool for attorneys' fees related to the case. Another 2 percent went to a court-ordered pool for expenses related to the litigation. Knox received $54.77, approximately 8.4 percent of the total payment.
The net proceeds to the district amounted to $423.83.
The two-page disbursement statement identifies the money as the first bonus payment from the JUUL Marketing Labs Inc. settlement, a case involving nearly 10,000 plaintiffs nationwide that accused the vape maker of unlawfully marketing its products to minors and misleading the public about the safety of those products.
In March 2021, board members unanimously approved the appointment of Knox Law Firm of Erie and two other firms to represent it in joining the lawsuit against the San Francisco-based maker of the Juul vaping device. A settlement offer from Juul two years later meant that the district stood to receive $63,649 in initial proceeds. The total award in the case was more than $1.7 billion.
Included in the statement, which was signed by Galdon, is an agreement acknowledging that the release 'requires Crawford Central School District to keep this statement confidential and Crawford Central School District agrees to abide by those terms.'
Despite that agreement, the disbursement statement is a public record, according to Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.
The reason such records remain public was made clear by the board's vote last month.
'If the public had no idea what was being voted on,' Melewsky told the Tribune following the meeting, 'they could not have given meaningful public comment, and that's a Sunshine Act problem.'
