Tustin : Supervisor’s Widow Sues Over Stabbing by Worker

The widow of a chemical plant supervisor, who was stabbed to death by an employee who was being fired, has sued the manufacturer for $1 million in connection with the incident.

Ronald R. Gorby, supervisor at the Dynachem Corp. in Tustin, was fatally stabbed Nov. 9, 1985, by Ivory Joe Valentine, a laboratory technician. Last month, Valentine was convicted of second-degree murder in the attack.

Gorby’s widow, Jane Gorby, claimed in the lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court that her late husband’s superiors told him to bring Valentine to the personnel office to be notified of his termination.

But she contended that they failed to warn Gorby of Valentine’s known violent tendencies, and did not tell him that they expected Valentine to react violently.

The lawsuit claims that Valentine was “unfit for employment” and that Dynachem was “reckless” in hiring him.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit were the firm and its parent corporation, Morton-Thiokol Inc.