LARGEST PERSONAL INJURY VERDICT IN WYOMING HISTORY AWARDED
A U.S. District Court jury in December 2003 awarded $17.5 million, the largest personal injury verdict in Wyoming’s history, in the wrongful death and personal injury trial of a North Carolina doctor and his wife who were gassed by carbon monoxide at a Teton Village, Wyoming, hotel. Dr. Randall Williams, a urologist from Columbus, North Carolina, and his wife were attending a medical conference in August 2001 at the Snake River Lodge & Spa in Teton Village, a hotel that Vail Resorts owned and managed through its subsidiary corporations. Dr. Williams was killed, and his wife, a cardiac surgery nurse, suffered permanent brain injury from the poisoning.
The hot water for the hotel was supplied by a propane-fired boiler, which was equipped with a safety shutdown switch to prevent dangerous levels of carbon monoxide from being produced. The hotel had located a dryer vent too close to the air intake for the boiler. Lint from the dryer vents was sucked into the boiler's air intake, clogged the burner screen, and thereby starved the boiler of needed oxygen. With insufficient oxygen, combustion of the propane was incomplete, and carbon monoxide was produced as a byproduct of the incomplete burning. Under those circumstances, the safety shutdown switch would activate and turn off the boiler so that carbon monoxide would not be produced.
When the safety switch was triggered, it caused the boiler to shut down, which then resulted in complaints from guests that their showers were cold. The hotel’s response was to place a jumper, or electrical bypass, across the safety switch (thereby disabling it) so that the boiler would not turn off. Hot showers were preserved, but guest safety was dangerously sacrificed. A perfectly safe hot water boiler had been converted into a deadly carbon monoxide generator. When Dr. and Mrs. Williams checked into the hotel, they were assigned to a room directly above the exhaust for the boiler, which had a safety shutdown switch that had been jumpered for more than four months. The carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless gas, was sucked into their room through the air conditioning ducts, and they were asphyxiated.
Bob Schuster, together with Nick Murdock of the Murdock Law Firm, P.C. of Casper, Wyoming, represented Mrs. Williams for her personal injury case and the family of Dr. Williams for the wrongful death case.
LAWSUIT SEEKS TO PROTECT FIREFIGHTERS, RESCUE PERSONNEL FROM CORPORATE MISCONDUCT
CARLSBAD, N.M. --- Twenty-six firefighters and rescue workers who responded to an August 2000 pipeline explosion near Carlsbad, New Mexico, filed a lawsuit in 2003 against El Paso Natural Gas Company, citing gross corporate misconduct as the cause for the explosion and the injuries they sustained.
“Every day we ask firefighters and rescue workers, many of them volunteers, to risk their lives to protect us,” said Bob Schuster of Jackson, Wyoming, one of the attorneys representing the 26 fire and rescue personnel. “This lawsuit is an effort to stop those who recklessly and knowingly --- through their actions or their failure to act --- put these brave individuals at exceptional risk. When companies know of the hazards and fail to correct them, they should be responsible for the injuries that result. Companies should not be permitted to make firefighters and rescue personnel victims of their misconduct.”
The deadly Pecos River explosion occurred in a section of pipeline El Paso Natural Gas designed, built, and operated for 50 years but never once inspected for possible problems. The failure to inspect the pipeline came despite repeated warnings from various regulatory officials and even its own employees --- and despite previous explosions and leaks in similar pipelines, including one within a few hundred yards of the August 2000 tragedy.
At the time of the explosion, El Paso Gas was running gas at excessive pressure through the pipeline, which was about 200 yards away from a campsite where the family was spending the weekend. The section of pipe where the explosion occurred was installed in approximately 1950. It was corroded in part due to low spots that allowed the collection of fluid and other corrosive agents that are by-products of natural gas production and transmission. The pipeline was unsafely designed and constructed with the use of bends and valves that prevented inspections. The company failed to stop the flow of corrosive agents into the pipeline. This failure was compounded by the company's refusal to eliminate the low spots in the pipeline that served as corrosion pools; it failed to straighten the pipeline and eliminate the valves and bends so that smart pigs and other inspection methods could be used; it failed to inspect the section of pipeline with other methods such as X-ray and ultrasound.
“The company failed to take even basic safety steps until this disaster. The company participated in lobbying efforts against basic safety regulations,” Schuster said. “The utility created a dangerous situation with its design and construction of this pipeline. It then not only failed to heed warnings about the impending disaster but failed to make the pipeline safe to avoid injury to members of the public who used the site as a recreation area.”
Those actions led to the explosion that killed 12 family members --- including five children --- and also seriously harmed 26 firefighters and rescue workers.
The fireball from the explosion was so immense that it was visible from Carlsbad 30 miles away. The New Mexico State Police reported the explosion left a crater 86 feet long, 46 feet wide, and 20 feet deep. The fire and rescue personnel responded to a scene in which some victims were burned beyond recognition --- a scene one rescue worker stated was worse than what he witnessed as a medic in the Vietnam War.
"El Paso's reckless behavior left 12 people dead and 26 valiant firefighters and rescue workers irrevocably harmed, forced forever to cope with unrelenting images of the gruesome carnage that the company could have and should have prevented," Schuster said.
“Firefighters, rescue workers, police officers, and others recognize the dangers inherent in their jobs and willingly put their lives on the line for us. But that job should not include facing life-threatening risks that are completely foreseeable and avoidable. It is time to hold accountable companies or individuals whose reckless actions or inaction needlessly jeopardize brave public servants,” Schuster concluded.
CARLSBAD, N.M. --- Twenty-six firefighters and rescue workers who responded to an August 2000 pipeline explosion near Carlsbad, New Mexico, filed a lawsuit in 2003 against El Paso Natural Gas Company, citing gross corporate misconduct as the cause for the explosion and the injuries they sustained.
“The company failed to take even basic safety steps until this disaster. The company participated in lobbying efforts against basic safety regulations,” Schuster said. “The utility created a dangerous situation with its design and construction of this pipeline. It then not only failed to heed warnings about the impending disaster but failed to make the pipeline safe to avoid injury to members of the public who used the site as a recreation area.”