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| NEWS Jury finds KBR not liable for injuries sustained at plant explosion
1 July 2004
HOUSTON, July 1 (HalliburtonWatch.org) - Halliburton was found not liable for injuries sustained by four Phillips Petroleum employees after they were badly burned during an explosion and fire at a chemical plant in March 2000. The four victims had sued Kellogg, Brown and Root, now known as KBR, seeking $130 million after a K-resin tank exploded at the plant, which is located in Pasadena, Texas. The plaintiffs suffered three-degree burns over 40 to 50 percent of their bodies. The blast injured 69 people and killed one. It was the third explosion at the plant since 1989. The plaintiffs argued that KBR's engineers failed to properly evaluate the chemical tank or to design adequate safeguards. "The [KBR] engineers completely failed to do the very first step and that is find out what was in this tank," John Eddie Williams, lawyer for the plaintiffs, told KHOU.com in Houston. "They thought it was something like water and it was a highly hazardous reactive chemical," he said. "They completely blew it because they treated it like it was water." Phillips Petroleum paid $2.1 million in federal penalties because of the explosion. |