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and had worked with outside consultants to develop its own customer warning program Further, we
also argued that, even if it did have a duty to warn, our client satisfied that duty by providing volumi-
nous warnings on an annual basis to the retailer To support the bulk supplier defense, our client relied
upon its supply contracts with the retailer, which included the retailer’s acknowledgment that it was
an experienced retailer, was familiar with the properties and characteristics of propane, had received
our client’s warning materials, and had its own customer warning program in place Our motion also
provided the court with copies of over 300 pages of warning and consumer education materials that
our client had provided annually to the retailer in the seven years before the accident, along with other
evidence that documented those materials being mailed to our client’s customers Those materials,
comprised largely of literature produced by the National Propane Gas Association, the Propane Edu-
cation Research Council (PERC), and propane industry leaders, included multiple warnings Our motion
also demonstrated how the warnings addressed each and every failure to warn alleged by plaintiffs

The other midstream suppliers also moved for summary judgment. The motions filed by the other
suppliers highlighted the differences in each midstream supplier’s warning program One wholesaler’s
mailings consisted of one or two consumer brochures, another’s was a single mailing consisting of a
material safety data sheet, and the third defendant had no mailing program at all Despite the differ-
ences in the quantity of mailings, the other suppliers argued that they were entitled to judgment be-
cause, even if their respective warning programs were somehow inadequate, the warnings the retailer
received from our client were sufficient as a matter of law.

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16 Alabama Propane Gas Association | November / December 2019