Parents Awarded $1 Million in Son’s Oil-Field Death

The parents of a 26-year-old Ventura County oil-field worker killed in a devastating 1994 well accident were awarded $1 million Friday as compensation for the loss of their only son.

In a written decision, Superior Court Judge Barbara A. Lane ordered Vintage Petroleum to pay the amount to Sean Harris’ mother and father, Carol Davis and Bruce Harris.

It is the second award for damages related to this accident against the Oklahoma-based oil production company. Vintage was earlier found liable for the deaths of Harris and two other men, and for injuries suffered by three other workers.

And it is exactly the amount sought by Los Angeles plaintiff’s attorney Steven D. Archer, who argued that Vintage owed the family for the staggering loss of an only child.

“Throughout this case, Vintage Petroleum has stuck its corporate head in the sand, denying the extent of the damages,” Archer said. “We argued that the loss was profound.”

Harris and two other workers, Ronald Johnson and Jason Hoskins, died on Aug. 10, 1994, after inhaling toxic fumes from a gas leak at Vintage’s oil production plant in the foothills of Rincon Mountain, north of Ventura.

The men were part of a crew hired by a subcontractor to convert a defunct 70-year-old well into a disposal site.

On the morning of Aug. 10, the workers were injecting water into the well through a steel pipe. At about noon, they removed their nozzles and water began gushing up from the ground. As they struggled to contain the geyser, a concentration of deadly gases spewed upward.

Harris, Johnson and Hoskins died almost immediately after inhaling the toxic fumes. Three other men who came to their rescue were also injured.

After the accident, the survivors and relatives of those killed filed a negligence lawsuit against Vintage.

In September, Lane ruled that the deaths as well as the injuries could have been prevented had Vintage followed proper safety measures.

During the damages phase of the eight-month trial, Archer put forward evidence on how Harris’ death affected his parents, who divorced when he was a child. In closing arguments, Vintage’s lawyer suggested a $75,000 award was appropriate. Archer asked for $1 million.

“We have felt the loss of an adult child, in this case, an only child, was much more significant than Vintage believed,” Archer said. “We asked a verdict of $1 million, and we prevailed.”

Since Harris never married or fathered a child, his parents become his legal heirs under the wrongful death statute, according to Lane’s written decision.

The judge found that Harris was close to both his parents throughout his life, and remarked in her ruling that his death “was a loss of extreme magnitude.”

Earlier this month, Lane awarded nearly $1.3 million to one of the surviving oil-field workers, Toby Thrower, and his wife. That amount was to compensate for Thrower’s physical suffering and lost wages as a result of the accident.

Other monetary awards are expected to be handed down in the coming weeks. Vintage attorney Bruce Finck said the company is considering an appeal.

After Lane’s initial ruling that Vintage was responsible for the tragedy at the Seacliff site, Davis told reporters that she wasn’t interested in money but wanted to see improvements in oil-field safety.

“It’s about making sure this doesn’t happen again,” she said. “I don’t want to see any mother go through what I have gone through.”