Aaaaaaaaaand City Of West, Texas Sues Fertilizer Plant Owner & Supplier - DMN

[hatrack]

The city of West on Friday sued the owner and supplier of the fertilizer plant that exploded in April, killing 15 people and inflicting as much as $100 million in property damage on the small town.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, accuses the company that owned West Fertilizer Co. — Adair Grain Inc. — and the company that supplied ammonium nitrate — CF Industries — of negligence.

Adair Grain is accused of being negligent in the way it stored ammonium nitrate, the volatile chemical used as a fertilizer that investigators say exploded after a fire broke out at the plant April 17. But the locally owned company had only $1 million in liability insurance, which probably would cover only a fraction of the damage.

The lawsuit focuses instead on CF Industries, the company that had been supplying ammonium nitrate to the plant for about two years. Daniel Keeney, a spokesman for Adair Grain, declined to comment because he said he hadn’t yet carefully reviewed the lawsuit.

EDIT

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/west-explosion/headlines/20130621-city-of-west-sues-owner-supplier-of-fertilizer-plant-that-exploded.ece

[Demeter]

1. Good! It needed to be done

[atreides1]

2. I wish them all the luck

Any legal types here who can determine what the city's chances of actually winning are?

[DURHAM D]

3. The Senior V-P of CF Industries

is some guy named Philipp P. Koch.

http://www.forbes.com/profile/philipp-koch/

[CanonRay]

4. How fast can the company lawyers get into Bankruptcy court?

Everybody knows that's where all this is headed, and the town of West and the victims will get screwed in the end.

[kestrel91316]

5. The guy and the company will go bankrupt. The best the city

will be able to do is get the land.

JMHO.