A turnaround, and a pipe that came loose
Turnaround is the most dangerous stretch of a refinery’s year: the unit comes down, contractors flood the site, and work that is normally spread across months gets compressed into weeks. A rigger working one of those turnarounds at a major refinery in Beaumont, Texas was crushed to death by an industrial pipe.
His family brought the case in state court in Jefferson County.
Eighty-eight times the offer
Before the verdict, the highest offer the defense made was $500,000. The jury returned $44,370,000 — roughly eighty-eight times what the family had been told the case was worth.
Nothing about the case changed in between. The facts were the same facts. What changed was that twelve people got to hear all of them.
What the evidence showed
- The death occurred during turnaround operations at a major refinery in Beaumont, Texas.
- An industrial pipe crushed the rigger.
- The defense’s highest offer before the verdict was $500,000.
- A Jefferson County jury returned $44,370,000.
The offer, and the verdict
A defendant’s last offer is not a valuation. It is a bet about whether the case will ever be tried.
More from the record
Every case is different. Prior results depend on the facts of the individual case and do not guarantee a similar outcome.