Chemtool Settlement: Eligibility, Amounts, and Payment Dates

The Chemtool settlement is a combined $100 million class action resolution for people who owned or rented property within three miles of the Chemtool plant in Rockton, Illinois on June 14, 2021, the day the facility caught fire. The total comes from two agreements: a $94.5 million settlement with Chemtool Incorporated and its parent, The Lubrizol Corporation, given final approval on September 27, 2024, and a $5.5 million settlement with Holian Insulation Company, approved on October 23, 2025.¹² Payments from the main Chemtool fund went out beginning May 1, 2025. Holian payments have been pushed to the second quarter of 2026.³⁴

Who Qualifies as a Class Member

The class covers Illinois citizens who, on June 14, 2021, owned or rented property within a three-mile radius of the Chemtool plant at 1165 Prairie Hill Road in Rockton.⁵ Both homeowners and renters can participate, though as explained below they collect from different portions of the fund.

Excluded from the class are Chemtool itself, its officers, directors, and employees as of June 23, 2021, employees of the plaintiffs’ law firms, and the presiding judge and his immediate family.⁵

The claim deadline has already passed. Claims for the Chemtool settlement had to be filed by September 12, 2024, so new claimants cannot join at this point.³ Residents who already filed for the Chemtool settlement do not need to file a second claim to participate in the Holian settlement; those payments will go to the same claimants.⁴

How Much Claimants Receive

Individual payment amounts were not published in advance, but the allocation formula for the $94.5 million Chemtool fund splits the money into two equal halves that pay differently depending on whether you owned or rented.

Property damage (50% of the fund): available only to property owners. Each owner receives a share proportional to the property’s assessed value relative to the total assessed value of all properties with approved claims. Assessed values come from the Winnebago County Supervisor of Assessments Office.
Loss of use (50% of the fund): available to both owners and renters. The formula weights payments higher for households that lived within one mile of the plant and for households with more residents at the time of the fire.

One resident who worked through the formula using data submitted by claimants estimated a single loss-of-use share at roughly $4,433. Under those estimates, two renters within one mile of the plant might collect about $9,753 together, and homeowners of a $200,000 property within one mile could receive roughly $18,197 combining both halves.⁶ Those figures are unofficial. Actual payments turn on the total number of approved claims and each property’s specific assessed value.

Attorneys’ fees came out of the Chemtool fund at 35%, roughly $33 million, and each of the seven lead plaintiffs across the Grasley and Mackey cases received an $18,000 incentive payment.⁷

The Holian settlement pays out on similar factors, but the fund is much smaller. After roughly $1.95 million in attorneys’ fees and expenses come out of the $5.5 million, about $3.5 million is left to divide among roughly 5,000 claimants, so per-claimant payments are expected to be around $500.⁴

When Payments Go Out

The Chemtool settlement’s first distribution was issued on May 1, 2025. Claimants received their money by mailed check or by electronic transfer through Venmo, Zelle, or PayPal, depending on the method they chose when filing.³⁶ Because the settlement money sat in a qualified settlement fund before being paid out, claimants also receive a share of the interest that accumulated, which is expected to add a meaningful amount to the final payouts given the size of the fund.⁸

Holian payments have not yet been sent. Analytics Consulting, the claims administrator, is working through more than 5,000 claims. An earlier estimate pointed to the first quarter of 2026, but that timeline was formally pushed to the second quarter of 2026.⁴ Claimants whose submissions are denied will be notified by mail and given a chance to fix the application.⁹

Why the Case Settled

On June 14, 2021, at about 7:15 a.m., an explosion and fire broke out at the Chemtool facility on Prairie Hill Road, which manufactured petroleum-based lubricants, greases, industrial cleaners, and metalworking fluids.¹⁰ The Rockton Fire Chief ordered a mandatory evacuation within one mile of the plant, and the fire burned for nine days before it was fully out on June 23, 2021.¹¹ Fire investigators concluded the blaze was accidental. An outside contractor was replacing insulation on elevated piping that carried heated mineral oil, and a scissor lift the contractor was operating likely struck a valve or the piping, releasing oil that pooled and ignited.¹² That contractor was later added to the case as Holian Insulation Company.¹³

Property owners and tenants sued in Winnebago County Circuit Court as Grasley, et al. v. Chemtool Inc., alleging negligence, willful and wanton conduct, and nuisance. A separate federal case, Mackey v. Chemtool Inc., was consolidated into the resolution.⁷

On August 14, 2023, Judge Stephen E. Balogh granted the plaintiffs permission to seek punitive damages. The court found it “undisputed” that the plant had no fire suppression system in its manufacturing areas, despite having been expressly counseled by its own liability insurer and a fire safety consultant to install one, and that the absence violated local fire codes.¹⁴ The court also cited a September 2020 internal presentation to Lubrizol called “Project Justification,” which acknowledged the lack of a system and warned that a fire could cause “total facility/property loss, significant business interruption, and loss of life.” Judge Balogh concluded the evidence supported a finding of willful and wanton conduct. The settlement followed the next year, with no objections filed to final approval.⁷

1
DiCello Levitt. Final Approval Granted in Chemtool Fire Class Action
2
Miner, Barnhill & Galland. Chemtool Settlement Agreement
3
Chemtool Class Action. Chemtool Class Action Settlement
4
Roscoe News. Holian Payments Pushed to 2nd Quarter
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Chemtool Class Action. Grasley v. Chemtool Class Notice
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Roscoe News. Why Your Property Value Affects Your Chemtool Settlement
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Roscoe News. Judge Approves Chemtool Settlement
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Roscoe News. Chemtool Settlement Nearing an End
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Roscoe News. 5,000 Claims to Process and Review – Holian Settlement Update
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U.S. Chemical Safety Board. Chemtool Rockton, IL Explosion and Fire
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U.S. EPA. Chemtool Site Profile
12
Rockton Police Department. Chemtool Fire Cause Determination
13
Meyers & Flowers. Meyers & Flowers to Name Holian Insulation Company as Defendant in Chemtool Fire Lawsuit
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Miner, Barnhill & Galland. Chemtool Punitive Damages Order