Legal News

Settlements Knocking out Plaintiffs in Trial Over Refinery Explosion

By Dan Slater

From sugar to oil: In 2005, a lethal explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery occurred after a piece of equipment called a blowdown drum overfilled with flammable liquid hydrocarbons. The excess liquid and vapor hydrocarbons then were vented from the drum and ignited at the startup of the isomerization unit — a device that boosts the octane in gasoline. Alarms and gauges that were supposed to warn of the overfilled equipment did not work properly.

Ten people sued BP over the explosion, which caused 15 deaths and scores of injuries, in Texas state court. Yesterday, a day after the plaintiffs rested their case, lawyers told Judge Susan Criss that six of the 10 plaintiffs had settled. The remaining plaintiffs are Luis Garcia, 26; Esteban Huerta, 57; Charles Pinder, 50; and Olivia Palton, 42. Here’s a report from the IHT.

The amounts of the latest settlements weren’t disclosed. There are 19 pending claims out of 4,000 filed since the explosion, according to David Salyer, BP’s main lawyer handling settlements. Settlements are paid from a $2.1 billion fund BP earmarked to resolve blast-related litigation.

In a related criminal matter, today, the Houston Chron reports that, next week, District Judge Lee Rosenthal will conduct a hearing on a proposed plea deal concerning BP’s criminal liability in the matter. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Rosenthal to rule on the deal, which calls for BP’s North American products division to plead guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Air Act, pay a $50 million fine and be on probation for three years.

Brent Coon, a Beaumont attorney, is representing the six individuals who settled in the civil case as well as two who didn’t — Garcia and Huerta. Houston attorney Lance Lubel represents Pinder and Palton.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 09, 2008 (boomark / email).