BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)—A Montana judge has approved a $43 millionsettlement for more than a thousand asbestos victims who said stateofficials knew that dust from a mine was killing people but failedto intervene.

An estimated 400 people have been killed and 1,750 others weresickened by asbestos released from a W.R. Grace & Co.vermiculite mine outside the mountain town of Libby. Lethal dustfrom the mine once blanketed the small community about 40 milessouth of the Canadian border, and asbestos illnesses were stillbeing diagnosed more than two decades after the mine wasshuttered.

District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock in Helena approved thesettlement award, which stemmed from lawsuits filed against thestate 10 years ago. Sherlock had dismissed the victims' claims in2002, a decision the state Supreme Court overturned.

Former Libby resident Mike Nelson, who has been diagnosed withasbestosis, said he signed up for the settlement two years agolooking for closure. After learning Friday that it had finally beenapproved, Nelson said, it meant little to him at this point, as hisrelatives continue to die and his lung problems get worse.

“I've lost my father, my mother, my stepmother and my father inlaw,” said Nelson, who now lives in Washington state. “They're alldead. All from asbestos … W.R. Grace was the one responsible, butright now, I hate my government. The state knew. (The money) isn'tgoing to do anything for me.”

Nelson recalled as a child playing in the silos of a W.R. Graceplant near his house, where gold-tinted dust from processedvermiculite “piled up like snow” and made it hard to breathe.

A federally-sponsored cleanup of Libby and the nearby town ofTroy continues at a cost to date topping $370 million.Environmental Protection Agency officials have said it may be yearsbefore the job is finished.

The majority of the claimants in the settlement are now 65 yearsor older.

The settlement stems from more than 200 lawsuits brought againstMontana agencies for failing to protect victims in Libby. The stateclaimed in its defense that it had no legal obligation to providewarning of the mine's dangers.

Jon Heberling, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said on Fridaythat the state had just such a duty, but failed to live up to it.“This may be of help to families exhausted from providing 24-hourcare for people dying of asbestos disease,” Heberling said.

Court documents filed as part of the settlement list more than1,300 victims who will receive payments ranging from $500 to morethan $50,000 for those afflicted with lung cancer ormesothelioma.

To cover the settlement, Montana will pay $26.8 million from thestate's self-insurance reserve fund and the National IndemnityCompany will pay $16.1 million, according to court documents. TheMontana Insurance Guaranty Association will pay the remaining$100,000.

The state did not admit liability as part of the settlement andthose who signed it agreed to release the state from futureclaims.

Bill Gianoulias, chief defense counsel for Montana's RiskManagement and Tort Division, said he could not comment beyond whatwas in the settlement papers because of ongoing litigation over thecontamination in Libby.

“We expect there will be additional claimants,” he said.

The money initially will go into a trust fund for distributionto the claimants. Heberling said when payments will go out is notcertain because in some cases Medicare liens need to be dealt withbefore money can be paid.

Sherlock also approved attorney fees estimated at roughly $14million in an order entered Sept. 12. The Daily Inter Lake firstreported the settlement.

Most of Libby's victims never worked in the mine but weresickened after family members brought mine dust home on theirclothing or after spending their childhood playing among mine wastethat littered the town of 3,000.

W.R. Grace escaped much of its liability for the contaminationwhen it filed for bankruptcy after the extent of the public healthcrisis in Libby was revealed. But the terms of its bankruptcyreorganization have been appealed, and Heberling said there areactive negotiations with the company over a possible settlementwith victims in Libby.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.