This case involves a fertilizer plant explosion causing death and serious injuries to multiple parties. The plant in question was owned by a large agricultural chemical supplier that had been incorporated in Delaware, however its principle offices were located in western Pennsylvania. The company in question was publicly traded, and operated dozens of subsidiaries for legal and taxation purposes. The plant, which was located in the southeastern United States, exploded following a failure of one of its chemical containment tanks, which had been undergoing maintenance at the time of the accident. It was documented that management of the company had been notified of multiple safety concerns by staff who were on-site at the plant for months before the event, however no actions were taken to address these concerns.
Question(s) For Expert Witness
1. Given the recommendations which had established safety protocol, do you believe that management had an obligation to ensure that these changes were implemented?
Expert Witness Response E-008437
I respectfully believe that I'd be well-qualified to represent the Plaintiff as financial and legal expert witness, including analyzing and quantifying the legal exposure in various defendant entities. I have a great deal of experience working with corporate structures similar to the company structure outlined above. I have a great deal of familiarity from a financial and a legal standpoint with how these corporations operate and how they split responsibility and liability among the various LLCs. Additionally, I have been involved in the industry for more than 20 years, including financial modeling, acquisitions, litigation, and damages modeling. Based on the brief case summary, it appears that the parent company had a definite duty to maintain safe operations of this plant and not only was this duty not met, but conditions were made worse by improperly implementing the suggestions presented in this case.
About the author
Joseph O'Neill
Joe has extensive experience in online journalism and technical writing across a range of legal topics, including personal injury, meidcal malpractice, mass torts, consumer litigation, commercial litigation, and more. Joe spent close to six years working at Expert Institute, finishing up his role here as Director of Marketing. He has considerable knowledge across an array of legal topics pertaining to expert witnesses. Currently, Joe servces as Owner and Demand Generation Consultant at LightSail Consulting.
