Firm Agrees to Settlement in Gas Leak

After five years of legal wrangling, two injured workers and relatives of three others killed in a Seacliff oil field accident will soon receive a total of more than $6 million in damages in connection with the 1994 tragedy.

Lawyers for Oklahoma-based Vintage Petroleum on Tuesday said they had decided to abandon further appeals over the devastating gas leak, after losing the case in appellate court three weeks ago.

“Our clients, in light of the appellate court ruling, have decided to pay the outstanding judgments,” said Los Angeles attorney Mitchell J. Popham.

Letters to each plaintiff will be mailed in the next few days, Popham said, and Vintage expects to pay the judgments, with interest, by the end of the month.

Plaintiff Carol Davis, whose 26-year-old son, Sean Harris, was killed, burst into tears when she learned that the company had finally decided to stop litigating the case.

“Oh, thank God,” Davis said. “Maybe now we can get on with our lives.”

Lawyers representing the workers and their families were cautiously optimistic.

“I’ll anxiously be awaiting their letter,” said Ventura attorney Richard M. Norman, who argued the case before the 2nd District Court of Appeal last month.

Oxnard attorney Richard L. Moomau echoed those sentiments.

“My client is going to be so glad,” Moomau said. “I’m afraid to call him until I get the letter. It really has been a mental stress and strain. It will be so great to have this over.”

Last summer, Vintage appealed a ruling by Ventura County Superior Court Judge Barbara Lane, who found that the company was liable for the deaths and injuries suffered by a crew at its Seacliff oil production site.

The Aug. 10, 1994, accident occurred as the workers were converting a 50-year-old oil well into a waste-water disposal site.

During the drilling, the workers hit a pocket of poisonous gas 2,138 feet below the surface that caused a geyser of methane-laced water to shoot 15 feet above the wellhead.

The men tried to contain the muddy water using a five-gallon bucket but were quickly overcome by the deadly gases. Harris, Jason Hoskins and Ronald Johnson were killed. Workers Jerry Walker, Toby Thrower and Derek Abbott were hospitalized with severe injuries.

The surviving workers and the relatives of those killed filed separate lawsuits against Vintage, claiming that the company’s negligence led to the accident. The cases were later consolidated and after a five-month trial Lane found Vintage 100% responsible.

She concluded that Vintage had failed to assess geologic risks at the site. She also found that a field supervisor hired by Vintage to oversee the well project was negligent in following safety measures that could have saved the men’s lives, such as setting up a flow line to carry gases from the well.

Lane later ordered Vintage to pay varying amounts of damages to the families of those killed and two of the surviving workers, who testified that they suffer headaches and other lingering health problems. Walker’s damage case is still pending.

Combined, the damages totaled more than $6 million. But the judgments were frozen when Vintage filed its appeal last June.

Lawyers for the company argued that Lane made at least two key errors in evaluating the contractual relationship between Vintage and the men at the scene. But the appellate court rejected those claims.

Vintage had until early August to decide whether to petition the California Supreme Court for a hearing--a move that would have drawn out the case for several more months.

“We weren’t sure if they were going to go ahead and take a shot at that,” Moomau said Tuesday. “They kept delaying and delaying, so it’s nice to hear that they have decided to pay this.”

For Davis, the case has never been about money, she said. She wanted to force oil companies to improve safety at their sites.

“I know it’s not going to bring Sean back,” Davis said, “but he would have wanted me to do this.”

Los Angeles attorney Steven D. Archer, who represented Davis, said the lawsuit against Vintage has resulted in tighter safety provisions.

“There are a lot of things that have changed with regard to safety,” Archer said. “For example, it is now mandatory that any time there is [drilling] going on, a flow line be attached. Had that happened, we wouldn’t have had this tragic accident.”