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Jury Awards Damages in Lawsuit
Involving Uncapped Gas Valve
Leading to Explosion at Residence
Texas jury in the she opted to go with an electric connected to an appliance at
Ramirez v Westwind dryer instead of a gas-fueled the time the home was sold had
Development case one On the day of the incident, to be properly “plugged and
A recently awarded the dryer apparently was not sealed” to prevent a gas release
close to seven million dollars in working as expected during the due to an inadvertent open-
damages to a husband and drying cycle so plaintiff decided ing of the valve Plaintiff further
wife arising out of an explo- to try to fix it for his daughter. asserted that the gas company
sion at their daughter’s home He worked on the dryer, then was negligent for failing to deter-
The explosion allegedly was ran it for a while but the clothes mine during its inspections of the
caused by the failure of the inside were still wet Plaintiff then new home before turning on the
home builder and its subcon- determined he would move the gas, that all the gas valves not in
tractor to plug or cap and seal dryer to the garage for better use were properly plugged and
a gas valve not connected to lighting while he continued to sealed as mandated by code
an appliance The gas compa- work on repairing it However, Plaintiff claimed that due to the
ny, CenterPoint Energy, which plaintiff contends that when he defendants’ negligence the
conducted inspections of the unplugged the dryer, a small unused, unplugged gas valve in
new house before turning on electrical arc was created which the area of the electric clothes
the gas, was also a defendant in ignited gas escaping from an un- dryer had been accidently
the lawsuit Although the lawsuit capped gas valve and caused opened which led to the gas
involved a natural gas system, an explosion Plaintiff was thrown explosion
analogies clearly can be drawn back by the force of the explo-
to propane-related inspection sion which caused a lumbar Trial.
procedures, documentation and herniation and a hip injury He At trial plaintiff offered
safety issues Let’s start with the also had second degree burns his evidence on the negligence
background facts leading to the to 20% of his body, including his claims regarding the unplugged
lawsuit arms and face gas valve and code compli-
ance issues He contended the
Background/Underlying Inci- The Lawsuit. unsealed gas valve was “inad-
dent. Plaintiff brought a negli- vertently opened” and admitted
On the day of the inci- gence-based lawsuit against the it possibly happened during his
dent, plaintiff and his wife were home builder, a plumber and repair work on the dryer but
babysitting their two-year old the gas company He contend- without his knowledge Plaintiff
granddaughter at their daugh- ed the home builder and its sub- further asserted he did not smell
ter’s home When plaintiff’s contractor plumber negligently any gas before the explosion
daughter moved into the new failed to follow code provisions He claimed there would have
house, about three years earlier, requiring that any gas valve not been various reasons why he
12 Alabama Propane Gas Association | July / August 2018
