TLC Trial Fires matter:
Major oil field worker safety case won by Colorado Trial Lawyers Randal
Kelly (July ’10) and Mike O’Connell (July ’11)
A $10.7 million verdict
was delivered by a Greeley, CO jury in a very complicated oil field worker
safety case which had previously been dismissed in a lower court, and was
revitalized by TLC July ’10 Grad Randal Kelly, with the assistance of Mike
O’Connell (July ’11). Before trial, Randy
was offered $225,000 for his client to settle.
Randy took over this
case in September 2010 after it had been badly handled by his client’s previous
attorney. In September 2011, Randy got the Colorado Supreme Court to grant a
C.A.R. 21 Petition to reinstate the critical claim against the critical
defendant, Schneider Energy, which had been dismissed by the trial court. Upon
winning that determination, and going back to the trial court before a
different judge (the first judge had since retired), the surviving widow and
family of Reyes Garcia was finally given an opportunity to tell their story to
a jury.
Reyes Garcia was a
gas-well worker on what is called in the industry “a work-over crew”.
After wells have been drilled and “frac-ed”, this crew was responsible to
clean out the remaining debris and contaminated water from the wells so that
they could then be put into production. These crews use three primary
pieces of equipment to do this: a rig
truck with a 40' tower and a drill over the well head, a huge pump to circulate
the water, and a gigantic water tank called a “flat tank”. During the
process, gas can be released at the flat tank if a gas pocket is hit or if the
debris coming out is real gassy. The primary safety mechanism for the men
is the spacing of the equipment since the pump and the rig are combustion
sources. Distance and time equals safety on this type of worksite.
Four different entities
were on the site with layers of immunity, indemnity, master-service agreements,
workers comp immunity, employee-employer obfuscation, sub-contracting and statutory
employment issues. Two “non-parties” alleged to be at fault- Noble Energy (the
well "operator"), and Leed Energy (the employer of Reyes Garcia which
was responsible for providing men and equipment) - were immune from suit, but
their negligence was nevertheless in issue.
Schneider Energy was the entity hired to supervise well operations and
they hired William Smith to run the operations at the site - including safety.
Smith and Schneider Energy both claimed that Smith was an independent
contractor. Smith’s lawyer claimed that Smith was an employee of Noble,
which would have also made Smith immune from suit, and Schneider Energy off the
hook.
While a gross
simplification of the issues, the gist is that The American Petroleum Institute
(“API”) recommends spacing of 100' in between each piece of equipment. On this particular site, the equipment was
spaced less than 75' apart, reducing the amount of time available for the
workers to shut down the well and avoid an explosion if something did go
wrong. In July 2007, something went terribly wrong on
this site when the crew detected gas coming from the flat tank and began shut
down procedures. Reyes was at the pump. He was enveloped in flames
in a flash fire, burned over 80% of his body, and fought to survive at the
Western States Burn Unit. Reyes died on September 8, 2007 without ever speaking
with his family again.
In the face of these
facts, the defense paraded a number of witnesses who had never heard of the API
spacing standard, and the ones who had heard of it said it wasn't important
and/or not relevant for these operations. The defense also argued that
any fault should be attributed to Leed Energy, (Reyes Garcia’s employer), because
Leed had delivered and set up the equipment at the site. The defense claimed that
Reyes Garcia was at fault because he voluntarily moved into the danger zone.
They also claimed that Smith was immune from suit as he was “technically” a
Noble employee. It was a knife fight. Randy and Mike fought the defense for 2
hours the night before closing on an “inherently dangerous activity” jury
instruction, which they ended up convincing the Judge to give, and which raised
the standard of care for the jury to consider.
Randy handled all the
liability witnesses, the experts and Lorena Garcia (Reyes' wife and a beautiful
human being), as well as voir dire, open and close. Mike came in a month
before trial and handled the story that the family had to tell as well as the
burn surgeon. Louise Lipman and Josh
Karton came to Denver a couple weeks before the trial to help with the family. Louise had originally helped Randy and the
family prepare for the first trial, in 2011, which was stayed when the Colorado
Supreme Court took the case away from the first judge. It took almost five
years to get this case to a jury.
Mike O’Connell
writes: “In the end, we ended up with an
all male jury and a less than enthusiastic female alternate who was allowed to
deliberate. I can't begin to tell you how complex this case was.
There is probably not another attorney in Colorado who could have handled
these issues besides Randy. Ironically, his April 4, 2013 Durango verdict
played into this because of the claim that Smith was a "statutory
employee" (sic) of Noble - which would have gutted the case, and nobody
knows this issue better than Mr. Kelly. Randy was the very definition of
what the TLC embodies. I am, and will always be, deeply moved by how he
handled this case and the trial.”
The trial was held in
Greeley, Colorado (Weld County) and was tried before Judge Todd Taylor. The jury found Smith was indeed an employee
of Schneider Energy. They found this activity to be inherently dangerous.
And they found no comparative - 100% Smith (and of course, all imputed to
Schneider on the respondent claim). The
verdict was $2,000,000 non-economic damages; $4.5 million on economic damages (medicals
and lost future earnings); and with interest compounded over 5 years, the total
verdict for Mr. Garcia’s surviving widow and family is $10,700,000. [Accounting for some cap issues, the final judgment
with interest will total $8.5 million.]
Note from TLC: While some cases have huge verdicts, many do
not. But the consistent factor is that
trial lawyers across this country fight for justice; they represent the common
man who must go against typically huge corporate or government entities, with
odds that are most often overwhelming.
Our congratulations to TLC grads Randal Kelly, Mike O’Connell and every
other trial lawyer in this country who commits his or her life daily to
obtaining justice. Way to go!
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