One of many staff who was injured in a scaffolding collapse this week on the Port Arthur LNG facility east of Houston, together with surviving kinfolk of two of the employees who died, are in search of greater than $1 million in damages in a lawsuit filed in opposition to a number of firms affiliated with the positioning.
Felix Lopez and Felipe Mendez had been two of the three staff who died within the collapse, which occurred early Tuesday in Jefferson County. Marcos Ramirez is one among two staff significantly injured.
Ramirez and kinfolk of Lopez and Mendez — together with Felix Lopez Jr., who additionally was working on the web site and witnessed his father’s demise — are plaintiffs within the wrongful demise lawsuit filed in Harris County. It alleges negligence on the a part of Port Arthur LNG LLC, its guardian firm Sempra, Houston-based ConocoPhillips, Fagioli Inc. and different associated enterprise entities.
“The theme that we see over-and-over once more is that there was some type of rush, or there was some type of revenue over security — ‘Let’s get this carried out faster, let’s hurry up, let’s not fear in regards to the security guidelines, we all know what we’re doing,’ ” mentioned Houston-based lawyer Ryan Zehl, whose agency is representing the plaintiffs. “And all it takes is as soon as for a tragedy to strike and a confluence of unhealthy issues and individuals are killed.”
Fagioli Inc. didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
A spokesperson for ConocoPhillips declined to remark, saying it’s firm observe to not touch upon pending litigation.
A spokesperson for Sempra additionally declined to touch upon the lawsuit, however launched an announcement in regards to the incident, saying the impacted staff had been workers of Bechtel, an engineering and building agency contracted to work on the web site.
Bechtel was not named as a defendant within the lawsuit.
“Our condolences exit to the households of those that misplaced their lives in addition to those that are injured,” the Sempra spokesperson mentioned. “Bechtel has suspended work on the positioning whereas the incident is investigated.”
Together with financial damages, the lawsuit additionally seeks a short lived restraining order and injunction to protect the circumstances on the web site that led to the scaffolding collapse.
“It seems like a load failed or fell from the crane, made contact with the scaffolding, knocked the scaffolding over — triggered it to tilt, and (three) of the employees tragically fell to their demise,” Zehl mentioned.
