Page 14 - july-august2018

Continued from page 13... gas company 34% at fault for an appeal was contemplated or
the incident. Significantly, the jury taken on certain issues However,
anxiety and flashbacks. Both decided plaintiff had no com- suffice it to say, the jury’s deci-
plaintiffs claimed their emotional parative fault for the explosion sion after hearing the evidence
reactions to the incident were and resulting damages As noted presented at trial clearly shows
“clearly heightened” because above, the jury awarded about the jury’s strong belief defen-
the explosion took place in a 7 million dollars in damages dants were negligent and plain-
location where they reasonably including damages for plaintiff’s tiff was not at fault
expected to be particularly safe, past and future medical expens-
i e at their daughter’s fairly new es, physical impairment, pain ***
home, babysitting their young and suffering, mental anguish Obviously, plaintiff’s
granddaughter and disfigurement. The jury also claims in the case discussed
awarded past and future mental above zeroed in on the suffi-
Verdict. anguish damages to plaintiff’s ciency of not only the builder’s
After hearing all the evi- wife Note as far as the overall work on the new residential gas
dence, the jury determined the damages award, it is possible system at issue but also inspec-
home builder was 60% at fault; the award was later reduced tions of the system for code
the plumber 6% at fault and the through various means or that compliance As far as a gas sup-
plier, negligence claims under
similar circumstances, will turn
on whether the evidence shows
the company complied with
its duty to conduct a sufficient
and proper initial inspection of
the entire gas system before es-
tablishing gas service at a new
Your SINGLE SOURCE for
residence Propane marketers
and their employees should
carefully and consistently follow
all inspection and service call
procedures, checklists and doc-
umentation requirements, and
update these as needed with
procedure or code changes
This is an important and ongo-
and many, many more! ing improvement step in reduc-
Stop in and see us! ing exposure and litigation in
alleged gas-related incidents.■

[Kathryn A. (“Katy”) Regier is an at-
1405 Sinnett Avenue • Dothan, Alabama 36303 torney with the Sandberg, Phoenix &
800-433-8925 von Gontard, P.C. law firm in its Kansas
City, MO office. She can be contact-
ed at: kregier@sandbergphoenix.com
or (816) 425-9683.]

14 Alabama Propane Gas Association | July / August 2018