The Nation - News from Dec. 3, 1985

A jury in Seattle failed to reach a verdict in a negligence suit against the Weyerhaeuser Co. stemming from the eruption of the Mt. St. Helens volcano, but the plaintiffs said they would seek a new trial. The jury of eight women and four men deadlocked on whether any of the deaths stemming from the May 18, 1980, eruption resulted only from “an act of God,” as the company had maintained. The nine plaintiffs, including volcano victims and the families of loggers killed in the eruption, had alleged in the suit that the forest products company kept its workers too close to the volcano.