BUCKSPORT — A Verso human resources official said the company made its last severance payment to more than 500 laid-off employees last week, in line with a settlement between the company and state government officials.

Charles Welch, the human resources manager for the former Verso mill in Bucksport, testified in a court filing Tuesday that the company paid out all of the approximately $18 million in severance claims it owed employees of that mill on Feb. 5, after an initial payment made before a Jan. 8 deadline.

The statement comes as the machinists’ union awaits a ruling on its motion asking the court to reconsider dismissing a claim that the company should have paid severance earlier, disputing the state’s ability to craft the deal it struck Dec. 23 with Verso.

The negotiated agreement between Verso and the state called for the company to pay workers half of the severance payments by Jan. 8 and another half within five business days after it closed the sale of the mill to the Canadian scrap metal company American Iron and Metal.

Welch wrote in his affidavit that the sale to AIM closed on Thursday, Jan. 29.

In the union’s Jan. 20 motion for reconsideration, attorney Kimberly Tucker argued that the state’s deal with Verso terminated the employees’ rights under state law to be paid within eight days of their final day of work. Even though the payments have been made, the union is asking the court to interpret Maine’s law to clarify the question at the heart of the initial fight over severance: whether a company like Verso is required by law to pay severance within one pay period.

In response to the union’s motion, the company argued the court should sustain its ruling and not send the question of whether state officials were right to step in and reach a settlement over severance pay to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court or to federal appeals court in Boston.

The union is due to file a reply to the company’s latest filing by Feb. 24.