lane24.JPG

T.J. Lane smirks during his sentencing hearing in March 2013.

(Marvin Fong/The Plain Dealer)

Editor's Note: John Bruening, an original defendant in the action, was dropped from the lawsuit and replaced by Daniel Lane. An update to the story reflects the change.

CHARDON, Ohio -- The family of T.J. Lane has agreed to pay almost $2.7 million to settle wrongful death lawsuits filed by the families of the three Chardon High School students gunned down by Lane in the school cafeteria.

Each of the families will receive almost $890,000. Lawyers for the victims' families will get 40 percent of the shares, according to the terms of the agreement.

The money is believed to be coming from settlements reached in two other lawsuits filed in the aftermath of the Feb. 27, 2012 shootings that left Daniel Parmertor, Demetrius Hewlin and Russell King Jr. dead and three other students injured.

A federal lawsuit was settled late last year with members of the Lane family and Liberty Mutual Insurance. T.J. Lane's father had a personal catastrophe liability policy with Liberty, court records show. Earlier this month, terms of a settlement in a lawsuit involving Jack Nolan, T.J. Lane's grandfather, and his insurer, Nationwide Property & Casualty Inc., were filed in Geauga County Common Pleas Court, according to court records. Terms of those agreements are not public.

Most of the terms in the wrongful death settlement were made public today by Geauga County Probate/Juvenile Court Judge Timothy Grendell. Motions had been made to keep these terms private as well.

After the hearing, Grendell said two reasons he decided to make the settlement public is because of the extreme amount of public interest in the Chardon shootings and to send a message to adults who are raising children of the possible consequences if the youth are allowed access to firearms.

The settlement had been reached in a Lake County Common Pleas Court, where the lawsuit was filed, but landed in Grendell's room because he is handling the estates of the three dead students. Ohio law requires that a probate judge approve a settlement involving the estates.

Grendell said he approved of the terms. "Even though you can never put a value on the loss of a child, I think the awards were fair under the circumstances," he said.

Attorneys representing the parties in the case either could not be reached or would not comment on the outcome.

Sued were T.J. Lane, his parents, Thomas Jr. and Sarah; his grandparents, Jack and Carole Nolan, and an uncle, Daniel Lane.

Lane was 17 and living with his grandparents at the time of the shooting. Lane pleaded guilty to the shootings and is serving a sentence of life in prison without parole.

The families of the dead students still have a lawsuit going against the Chardon school district and Lake Academy, the alternative school that Lane attended. The families said the Chardon district failed to provide adequate security and did not assess the danger Lane posed to others. The academy was sued for not warning others of Lane's mental instability, the suit said.