Alleged Safety Failures in Transporting Crude by Rail Leads to Criminal Charges
Posted on May 13, 2014 in Energy/Environmental, Investigations, Process Safety, Transportation | Comments Off on Alleged Safety Failures in Transporting Crude by Rail Leads to Criminal Charges
The Quebec prosecutor’s office has announced it will seek criminal charges against a rail company and three of its employees following the Lac-Mégantic derailment and explosion last year. The director of criminal and penal prosecutions posted the public statement on the government’s website last evening. The statement asserts, “After having analyzed the body of evidence, the three...
DOT Issues Emergency Order Requiring Bakken Crude Train Operators To Notify State Emergency Response Commissions; FRA and PHMSA Urge Shippers To Avoid Older DOT-111s
Posted on May 8, 2014 in Investigations, Transportation | Comments Off on DOT Issues Emergency Order Requiring Bakken Crude Train Operators To Notify State Emergency Response Commissions; FRA and PHMSA Urge Shippers To Avoid Older DOT-111s
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued an emergency order mandating that all railroads operating trains containing more than 1,000,000 gallons of Bakken crude oil notify State Emergency Response Commissions (SERCs) about the operation of such trains through their states within 30 days. The written notification must provide a reasonable estimate of the number of trains...
Union Members’ Whistleblower Claims Alleging Unsafe Work Conditions Brought Under Michigan Law Preempted by NLRA
Posted on May 6, 2014 in Investigations, Litigation, Workplace Safety | Comments Off on Union Members’ Whistleblower Claims Alleging Unsafe Work Conditions Brought Under Michigan Law Preempted by NLRA
The Supreme Court of Michigan held yesterday that union members’ claims asserted under the Michigan Whistleblowers’ Protection Act alleging retaliation for reporting of unsafe work environments are preempted by the National Labor Relations Act and must be litigated exclusively before the National Labor Relations Board. The court, however, held that claims brought under the same...
Prison Sentence for Coal Mine Owner Underscores Need for Transparency with Safety Investigators
Posted on May 6, 2014 in Construction, Investigations | Comments Off on Prison Sentence for Coal Mine Owner Underscores Need for Transparency with Safety Investigators
On Friday, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia sentenced a coal mine owner to three months in prison and ordered him to pay a $3,000 fine for lying to an MSHA agent during a June 2009 investigation. The court also fined the coal company $25,000 and placed it on probation for a year. In June 2009, MSHA inspectors determined that someone at the mine illegally...
Ninth Circuit Reemphasizes That Challenges to Expert Credibility and the Strength of a Particular Scientific Method Best Left for Jury
Posted on May 5, 2014 in Energy/Environmental, Investigations | Comments Off on Ninth Circuit Reemphasizes That Challenges to Expert Credibility and the Strength of a Particular Scientific Method Best Left for Jury
The Ninth Circuit reversed a district court’s exclusion of expert testimony in a water contamination case that is instructive for expert challenges in any safety-related case. The City of Pomona, California filed suit against the company that imported sodium nitrate into the United States from 1927 through the 1950s from Chile’s Atacama Desert on the grounds that the fertilizer...
Be Prepared for a “Process Safety Attack”
Posted on Apr 26, 2014 in Construction, Energy/Environmental, Investigations, Process Safety, Transportation, Workplace Safety | 0 comments
Safetylitigation.com founders Carter Williams and Matt Gatewood recently analyzed the legal attack to expect following a major incident in the January issue of Corporate Counsel under the headline, “Be Prepared for the Inevitable ‘Process Safety’ Attack.” In the article, they draw on their experiences in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill litigation and warn of the courtroom fallout after a...
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