Topeka ? Attorneys asked the state’s highest court Tuesday to settle a thorny legal issue arising from the explosion of a DeBruce Grain elevator nearly five years ago.

The June 1998 accident outside Haysville killed seven workers and injured another 14. Of the 21 victims, seven actually were sent to the elevator by LSI Corp., a temporary employment agency in Wichita.

Under the Kansas workers’ compensation law, an injured worker or the family of a worker killed on the job automatically receives benefits, without having to show an employer’s conduct led to an accident. In return, the employer cannot be sued for civil damages.

But disabled employees or the families of workers killed on the job can sue third parties — outsiders whose conduct may have contributed to an accident, such as the manufacturer of a flawed machine.

The question for the justices is whether Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., which provided workers’ compensation coverage for LSI, can recover any of its costs from damages awarded in civil lawsuits to the disabled workers and the families of those killed in the explosion.

Generally, insurance companies can recover the costs of providing benefits if someone other than their policyholder is responsible for damages.

“That is something we need the court’s help with,” said Doug Johnson, a Wichita attorney representing Liberty Mutual. “I don’t think this particular interplay of facts and law has ever been brought to a court of record before.”

Attorneys for the injured workers and the families of the deceased workers said those victims stood to lose several hundred thousand dollars if the court ruled for Liberty Mutual.

“We don’t have to get into anything confusing,” Don McKinney, one of their attorneys, told the justices. “The insurance company, here, wants to play a shell game.”

The Supreme Court could rule as early as July 11.

In 2001, the company agreed to pay $685,000 fines under a settlement with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but it did not acknowledge liability or wrongdoing.

But the victims or their families also sued DeBruce’s insurer and a maintenance company.

McKinney said the victims estimated their damages between $10 million and $11 million.

The most they could recover in workers’ compensation benefits, in addition to having medical bills paid, would be $3.15 million — $200,000 for each death and $125,000 for each disabled worker.