$18.487M Settlement for Injury Caused by Release of Lethal Gas Due to Equipment Failure

Confidential settlement for serious injury caused by release of Hydrogen Sulfide due to equipment failure.

Plaintiffs were two steamfitters who worked for a contractor at a power plant in Western Pennsylvania. They were tasked with replacing a run of pipe that carried water that had been used for cooling and steam generation to a retention pond several hundred yards away. During work in the main pipe, the two workers were overcome by gas. Authorities later determined the gas to be Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S).

One worker was killed and the other seriously injured and traumatized by the gas exposure. In the suit against the power plant, the Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky team proved that the plant owner/operator had neglected to test the area for H2S despite its own protocols requiring it to do so, and despite knowing how lethal the gas was. The case settled for $18,487,500.