Defense Verdict - El Paso, Texas
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Todd Schwarz
September 17, 2012 (El Paso County, Texas). Brook Laskey and Todd Schwarz successfully defended a propane company in a four-week jury trial in El Paso County, Texas.
The client is one of America’s largest propane retailers with a presence from coast-to-coast. The case involved a fire that occurred in a 4-H Club fundraising booth at a church festival in August 2009. Four teenagers suffered burns as a result of the fire.
“While we certainly feel great sympathy for the children who were burned in this tragic accident, we were confident that our client had not been negligent nor even had anything to do with this situation. Nevertheless, we knew that we needed to prepare a strong defense to prove that the company played no part in the cause of the fire,” said Brook Laskey, a partner in the Albuquerque office of Miller Stratvert P.A.
The jury heard testimony from upwards of forty witnesses, including eight experts, and was also presented with a gas dispersion model of the purported gas leak. Plaintiffs’ counsel asked the jury to award in excess of $19,700,000 in damages to the victims and their families.
Defense counsel argued that the fire was caused as a result of water or ice being inadvertently dropped into hot oil contained in a funnel cake fryer, rather than via a propane flash fire or explosion. After hearing testimony from all sides, the El Paso County jury of nine men and three women deliberated and returned a verdict for the defense (the church was also a party-defendant) on September 14, 2012.