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Paralyzed Worker Agrees to Settle Suit Against Contractor, Mobil for $4 Million

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Times Staff Writer

A 30-year-old ironworker, paralyzed from the waist down in a 1987 fall at the Mobil Oil Corp. refinery, has accepted a $4-million settlement of a lawsuit against Mobil and a contractor that oversaw construction at the Torrance facility.

The payout, however, will come not from Mobil or from general contractor Ralph M. Parsons Co., but from the insurance company for Brown & Root U.S.A. Inc., a subcontractor that assumed liability for injuries to its workers when taking the Mobil job. It was not named in the suit.

Cal/OSHA cited Brown & Root, a Houston-based international construction firm, for two violations of work-place safety rules in the April 7, 1987, accident.

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“One of the conditions of bidding on these jobs is that the contractors have to take responsibility for injuries,” said Sandra Tyson, attorney for injured worker Robert B. Galloway.

“So Mobil is totally insulated,” she said, “and this is probably one of the reasons these violations go on. They have managed to transfer the responsibility to another party. . . . But Bob Galloway didn’t have anybody to pass the buck to; he had to take the fall.”

In response, a Mobil spokesman said that although the refinery requires outside contractors to assume responsibility for their workers’ injuries, Mobil also vigorously monitors conditions on construction sites there.

Galloway had worked for Brown & Root for less than a week when he broke his back and leg in a 30-foot fall from an iron beam. Even before the fall, he had given notice to his employer that he would quit the refinery job because of what he felt were unsafe working conditions, Tyson said.

Brown & Root was expanding the iron superstructure that supports pipelines as part of a $200-million modernization of the refinery.

In his lawsuit filed in May, 1987, in Torrance Superior Court, Galloway claims that Mobil and general contractor Parsons did not install safety lines, guard rails, scaffolding or other devices required by state safety codes during construction of a steel structure that supports the refinery’s piping system.

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Charges and Defense

The suit against Mobil and Parsons alleges that the defendants also “failed to make reasonable inspections or repairs” at the construction site and allowed “numerous unsafe conditions” to exist, including workers’ exposure to uninsulated pipes that carry super-heated fluids. Tyson said she has been told by 15 to 20 workers that such pipes were on the site.

Mobil and Parsons denied the allegations. And, in court documents, the companies claimed that Galloway’s injuries were caused by his own negligence in that he “failed to use reasonable care for his own safety.” The worker “had full knowledge of all risks” and accepted them when taking the job, lawyers for the defendants argued.

Galloway’s fall prompted Cal/OSHA to cite Brown & Root in April, 1987, for one general violation and three serious violations of safety regulations. A serious violation is one posing a “substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result and where the employer knew, or could have known, of the hazard.” General violations cover a wide range of minor offenses.

Cal/OSHA investigators cited Brown & Root for the serious violations of not providing scaffolding from which Galloway could safely work, for allowing workers to tie tethers intended to break falls onto an electrical conduit and for failing to provide workers a safe way to get to the job site.

2 Counts Dropped

Brown & Root appealed the citations, and the state last year dropped two of the serious violations. The company paid fines totaling $375 for the general violation of having a plank on scaffolding and the serious violation of failing to provide safe access to the work site.

During a year of work at Mobil after the accident, Brown & Root had no other accident that resulted in an employee’s missing work, even though an average of 500 employees worked on the job, said spokesman Joe Stevens. There had been no major injury of a Brown & Root worker before Galloway’s fall, he said.

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Tyson said Galloway and co-workers began each day by scaling “like monkeys” the three-story iron superstructure that they were welding together. They protected themselves from falling by tying tethers to beams, but when they moved from one location to another they had to untie the tethers, so there was nothing to break their fall.

Cal/OSHA requires either scaffolding or safety lines for workers in such situations, Tyson said. Before his fall, Galloway was welding on the perimeter of a structure, and safety lines should have been erected there so he could have attached his tether to them, she said.

Bird Droppings

“He had offered to put up his own perimeter lines. He told them it was really dangerous,” Tyson said. “There were bird droppings everywhere, and he was expected to walk along a beam nine inches wide while carrying a 40-pound welding (pack).”

After slipping, Galloway hit pipes on the way down, flipped over, and landed on his back on a metal plate, Tyson said. His paralysis has lessened since the accident, but he still suffers many of the symptoms of paraplegia, she said.

In agreeing to the settlement in May, Galloway accepted an immediate $1.25 million in cash, with the remaining $2.75 million coming in monthly checks and periodic payments over 30 years, including college tuition of $160,000 for his two children. The $4-million payout is guaranteed. It would reach nearly $5 million if Galloway were to live until 2019.

Tyson said sworn statements she took from employees responsible for safety at Mobil, at Parsons and at Brown & Root demonstrated to her that the companies had no adequate safety program for the job on which Galloway was injured.

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20 People Assigned

“Mobil said they had brought in 20 safety guys for this job,” but these employees were basically couriers who ran work permits from a central office at the refinery to the work site, she said.

“They were concerned about getting the work done. These young (safety) guys had long legs and tennis shoes,” she said. “It’s not how many safety people they have, it’s what they do.”

Spokesman Jim Carbonetti said that Mobil’s safety inspectors, three of whom assisted Galloway after his fall, do far more than run permits to work sites. They inspect the sites and equipment for safety and are certified to administer emergency medical aid, he said.

Two years ago, in the midst of the $200-million refinery project, Mobil required contractors to attend safety meetings and monitored work sites for safety, Carbonetti said.

Up to 2,000 construction workers were then at the refinery, he said, and “with the rise of the number of accidents during construction, we determined we needed to tighten the training and safety requirements for all contractors.”

Number Increased

He said training sessions were added over the next two years, and the number of safety employees have increased to 22, up 20%. The number of injuries to employees of Mobil and Brown & Root are below industry averages, spokesmen said.

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Safety at the Mobil refinery has become a major community issue since a thunderous explosion and two-day fire in November, 1987.

During the last month, Torrance has twice charged Mobil with criminal violations of state safety laws at the refinery. Employees of contractors were injured or killed in both incidents.

The city sued Mobil in April, seeking to have the refinery declared a public nuisance and subject to municipal regulation. The city maintains that the refinery’s use of deadly hydrofluoric acid and its history of fires, explosions and illegal air emissions justify city intervention. Mobil has countersued, saying that the refinery is safe.

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