A factory refrigeration technician who lost his lungs to an anhydrous ammonia leak has no case against his employer, a poultry plant in N.C. The incident in June 2009 killed one refrigeration technician and injured another refrigeration technician and their supervisor. The injured refrigeration technician was in a coma for four to five months and had to have a double-lung transplant. It all started in April 2009 when the U.S. Department of Agriculture inspected the poultry plant and ordered the facility to replace a part in its refrigeration equipment, a votator heat exchanger, which uses anhydrous ammonia to chill the poultry before packaging. The company received the part, an inner sleeve, in June 2009 and decided to use its own employees instead of hiring an outside contractor to install it. The instructions for replacing the inner sleeve include a warning that all of the refrigerant – the anhydrous ammonia – must be removed first.
The deceased refrigeration technician was in charge of maintaining the votators, and he was given the instructions. As he worked on the votator, he summoned another refrigeration technician, who was working on other items elsewhere in the plant to help. The deceased refrigeration technician was unscrewing a valve on the votator when the other refrigeration technician entered the room.
“As he saw Swain unscrewing the valve, plaintiff – who was aware of the fact that the votator contained ammonia and of the hazardous nature of ammonia – shouted at Swain: ‘Stop, Cliff, stop,’, the ruling says. “However, his warning was too late as the pressure behind the partially opened votator sleeve forced ammonia out of the votator in an explosive manner, which caused the room to be filled with ammonia almost instantaneously.”
The deceased refrigeration technician died from the ammonia, while the other technician and a supervisor present were severely injured. The supervisor was hospitalized for about 40 days. State regulators fined Mountaire $58,950 for safety violations in light of the incident.
The injured refrigeration technician filed a lawsuit against the plant, the deceased’s estate, the supervisor and other employees involved in decisions on how to replace the votator inner sleeve. Superior Court Judge James Greg Bell in December 2014 denied a request by the defendants to dismiss the case; Bell should have granted their request, the Court of Appeals said.
Except in limited circumstances – such as when a supervisor knowingly orders a worker to do a task without the required safety equipment and safety standards and knows this could cause injury or death – workers aren’t allowed to sue their employers for on-the-job injuries, the Court of Appeals said. In this case, the injured technician entered the room at the behest of his co-worker, the deceased refrigeration technician, and not at the request of the supervisor, although the supervisor was present and overseeing the job, the ruling says, and it says there was no indication that the supervisor and the deceased refrigeration technician knew the task would be so risky.
Sources:
http://www.fayobserver.com/news/crime_courts/worker-who-lost-lungs-in-mountaire-farms-ammonia-leak-loses/article_b73590eb-9db1-523e-8831-22998e6332f8.html
https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=312451578