Port Arthur LNG
Port Arthur LNG in Port Arthur, Texas, is a liquefied natural gas facility being developed and marketed by California-based Sempra Energy.
One of the workers who was injured in a scaffolding collapse this week at the Port Arthur LNG facility east of Houston, along with surviving relatives of two of the workers who died, are seeking more than $1 million in damages in a lawsuit filed against multiple companies affiliated with the site.
Felix Lopez and Felipe Mendez were two of the three workers who died in the collapse, which happened early Tuesday in Jefferson County. Marcos Ramirez is one of two workers seriously injured.
Ramirez and relatives of Lopez and Mendez — including Felix Lopez Jr., who also was working at the site and witnessed his father’s death — are plaintiffs in the wrongful death lawsuit filed in Harris County. It alleges negligence on the part of Port Arthur LNG LLC, its parent company Sempra, Houston-based ConocoPhillips, Fagioli Inc. and other related business entities.
“The theme that we see over-and-over again is that there was some kind of rush, or there was some kind of profit over safety — ‘Let’s get this done quicker, let’s hurry up, let’s not worry about the safety rules, we know what we’re doing,’ ” said Houston-based attorney Ryan Zehl, whose firm is representing the plaintiffs. “And all it takes is once for a tragedy to strike and a confluence of bad things and people are killed.”
Fagioli Inc. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for ConocoPhillips declined to comment, saying it is company practice not to comment on pending litigation.
A spokesperson for Sempra also declined to comment on the lawsuit, but released a statement about the incident, saying the impacted workers were employees of Bechtel, an engineering and construction firm contracted to work at the site.
Bechtel was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
“Our condolences go out to the families of those who lost their lives as well as those who are injured,” the Sempra spokesperson said. “Bechtel has suspended work on the site while the incident is investigated.”
Along with monetary damages, the lawsuit also seeks a temporary restraining order and injunction to preserve the conditions at the site that led to the scaffolding collapse.
“It looks like a load failed or fell from the crane, made contact with the scaffolding, knocked the scaffolding over — caused it to tilt, and (three) of the workers tragically fell to their death,” Zehl said.