Confidential
Settlement – $4,300,000Judge
Court
Whatcom Superior
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Defendant
Experts
Plaintiff
Stanley Freeman
(technical)
William Fordyce
(medical)
Chris Harris
(medical)
John Liebert
(medical)
Lowell Bassett
(technical)
Defendant
Steven E. Hughes
(technical)
Kenneth Baker
(technical)
David R. Knowles
(technical)
Facts
On Saturday, January 19, 1991, at 4:15 p.m., there was an explosion and fire at the Defendant BP Oil refinery. Injuries to Jeff Heidingsfelder (there were other victims, not parties to this case) resulted in his death within hours. At the time of the fire, the refinery was undergoing a $20,000,000 overhaul. Most of the refinery was shut down at the time of the fire. Investigation by the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries discovered that a management decision had been made to speed up the process by leaving refinery products in a tower and leave burners lit in a connected area to remain on while the work was in progress. This would avoid a time consuming and expensive process of having to shut down the reformer. The State determined that the refinery knowingly bypassed their won safety procedures in order to hurry up the process and did not tell the PM employees of this decision.
Settlement Discussions
No offers or demands were exchanged prior to this settlement.
Injuries
Death of spouse and husband.
Other Information
Although the case identification is not normally published on settlements, exception is made where there has been high media coverage, as in this case.
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