The movie North Counrtyis based upon this landmark case. In early 1992, a District Court in Minnesota granted women who work for the mining company the right to file a class-action sexual harassment suit. The mining company, Eveleth Taconite of Cleveland, had argued that sexual harassment claims cannot be made on a class-wide basis. It stated that reactions to profanity, pornography, or other potentially offensive material are highly individualized.

Usually sexual harassment cases were filed by one individual plaintiff, or a small number of individual plaintiffs joined in one suit, or a small number of plaintiffs filing separate suits. For a woman, or several women, to be able to file a sexual harassment suit on behalf of a class of people, all the other women who were in the group subjected to harassment, was indeed a new, interesting, and potentially explosive occurrence. It could greatly expand the number of people entitled to damages and the amount of the total monetary judgment.

U.S. District Judge James M. Rosenbaum's opinion stated that "The court does not agree (with the company)." He said the question "is not how an individual class member reacted, but whether a reasonable woman would find the work environment hostile." While class-action suits have been used in racial or sexual discrimination cases, this ruling allowing a sexual harassment class action suit was unprecedented.

The case is important because sexual harassment cases were usually filed on behalf of individuals and the 1991 ruling that this could be tried as a class-action suit was unique. Class action cases are considered somewhat difficult in sexual harassment cases because the nature of class action required that the group of plaintiffs be "similarly situated: and it may be difficult to show that all the women in the workplace were similarly harmed by the misconduct.

Just prior to the beginning of a new trial set for January 5, 1999 a federal district court in Minnesota closed the long-running Eveleth sexual harassment class action case by approving a confidential settlement agreement. The agreement was between 15 current and former mine workers at the Eveleth Mines and Oglebay Norton Co. and its insurer.

The plaintiffs, all female workers at mines on Minnesota's Iron Range, had already proved they had been subjected to a sexually hostile work environment during the 1980's and early 1990's. The settlement determined how they would be compensated in this case.

The women's attorney said that originally 21 sued the Eveleth Mines, alleging they were subjected to unwelcome touching and offensive language and that they were treated negatively for working jobs traditionally held by men. However, the attorneys said, over time the number of women in the class diminished. Four agreed to settle with Oglebay Norton, the former owner of the mines, one woman died, and another dropped out of the case before her deposition.

The issue of damages remained unresolved after a previous trial in which a federal magistrate had awarded the class members approximately $220,000. In December 1997, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled that award was inadequate and ordered a new trial, saying that the magistrate had abused his discretion by refusing to hear medical testimony on the women's emotional distress.

A nine-man, three-woman jury was selected in December 1998 to hear the case in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. At that time, Judge John Tunheim told the jurors that it already had been determined by another court that Eveleth Mines had maintained a work environment that was sexually hostile to women, and that it was their task now to decide the damages.

Only days before the trial was set to begin, lawyers involved in the case spent about ten hours with a mediator, and the next week the judge approved the settlement reached to pay the women for damages. While the terms of the settlement were confidential, the women's attorney said, "I can only tell you this: We were not constrained in this case by the federal sexual harassment limits of $300,000 per claim. Under the Minnesota Human Rights Act, there are no limits to the amount that one can recover."