Fight Over ’94 Oil Field Tragedy Continues

A year and a half ago, a judge ordered Vintage Petroleum to pay more than $6 million in damages to workers and their families stemming from a deadly 1994 oil field accident at the company’s Seacliff production site.

So far, no one has seen a dime.

But a pending appellate court decision could soon end a lawsuit brought by three injured workers and the relatives of three others killed during one of Ventura County’s most devastating workplace disasters.

“We’ve told them that hopefully by the end of this year it will be resolved one way or another,” said attorney Richard M. Norman, who argued the case last week before the 2nd District Court of Appeal in downtown Ventura.

Norman and five other lawyers on the case were optimistic Wednesday as they left the Santa Clara Street courthouse, just a few miles south of the dusty oil field where the disaster unfolded six years ago.

It was Aug. 10, 1994. A seven-man crew was converting a 50-year-old oil well into a disposal site at Vintage’s property in the foothills of Rincon Mountain.

About noon, the crew hit a pocket of poisonous gas 2,138 feet below the surface. A 15-foot geyser of dirty, methane-laced water erupted from the wellhead as the men tried to contain it using a 5-gallon bucket.

But it was too late.

In a matter of minutes, Sean Harris, Jason Hoskins and Ronald Johnson died after being overcome with toxic fumes.

Three other workers--Jerry Walker, Toby Thrower and Derek Abbott--were hospitalized with severe injuries.

Debilitated by headaches and other brain injuries they believe were caused by the explosion, the surviving workers and relatives of those killed filed separate lawsuits against Vintage, an Oklahoma-based company that had hired the men for the well job.

In 1998, Superior Court Judge Barbara Lane heard evidence in those cases, which were eventually consolidated into one giant court action.

After a 5-month trial, Lane ruled Vintage was “100%” responsible for the gas leak because, among other things, it had failed to assess geologic risks at the Seacliff site. She also found that a field supervisor hired by Vintage to oversee the well project was negligent for failing to follow safety measures that could have saved the men’s lives.

In subsequent months, Lane ordered Vintage to pay varying amounts of damages to the workers and the families of those killed.

The largest award, more than $3 million, was ordered paid to widow Tiffany Hoskins and her two children for the loss of Hoskins, a 22-year-old Ventura resident.

Lane awarded $1 million to the parents of Harris, a 26-year-old Oxnard resident.

*

The jurist awarded roughly the same amounts to surviving workers Thrower and Abbott. She awarded $267,055 to Johnson’s young son, a smaller amount because Lane found Johnson had made mistakes that contributed to his own death. Walker’s damages are still pending.

On June 11, 1999, Vintage appealed Lane’s ruling--freezing the damages already awarded and sending the massive litigation to the appellate court.

For the crew members and their families, the appeal only extended an already achingly long process.

“It has been rough because they have managed to stretch it out, pull it out for so long,” said Carol Davis, who lost her only child, Harris, in the accident. “It is just ridiculous the things they are talking about.”

Davis, who remarried and lives in Arizona, filed a wrongful death claim with her former husband, Bruce Harris. She expected Vintage to appeal Lane’s ruling but said she didn’t realize the process would take so long.

“My attorney told me we were going to grow old together, but I didn’t think it would be this old,” she said. “I am frustrated. The anger I think is mostly gone. But I am very frustrated.”

She isn’t alone.

Jerry and Norma Walker of Bakersfield are reminded of the accident every day.

Before the gas leak, Jerry Walker was a healthy senior engineer with a promising future. He loved his job and had just bought a new home.

Now his body aches, and doctors say his pains are directly related to his exposure to toxic fumes.

His working days are over. And his finances are so strained, he said, that he and his wife fear they could lose their home.

“I haven’t been able to work, so my life is changed,” said Jerry Walker, now 47. “I am getting worse and I will continue to get worse.”

*

The couple are banking on their pending damage award to stay afloat financially. Said Norma Walker: “We’ll be in the streets without it.”

Los Angeles attorney Steven D. Archer, who represents Davis and her ex-husband, as well as Johnson’s 6-year-old son, Tyler, said the lengthy appeal has been hard on everyone.

Archer said Tyler’s mother, who was not married to Johnson, doesn’t like to talk about the case.

Lawyers representing other plaintiffs said their clients were also uncomfortable. Some have moved away entirely to get away from the painful memories here.

“They’re more than frustrated,” Archer said. “Their position has always been that Vintage is responsible.”

Vintage doesn’t see it that way.

In its appeal, the company argues Lane, the jurist, made at least two key errors in evaluating the contractual relationship between Vintage and the men at the scene.

First, Vintage contends, it should not be held responsible for crucial mistakes made by on-site field supervisor Jon Crawford because he was an independent contractor--not an employee.

It was Crawford, the court found, who declined to set up a safety “flow line,” a piece of equipment commonly used to divert gases.

Lane said the flow line could have saved the men’s lives, and she ruled Vintage was liable because Crawford was its “agent” at the scene.

Secondly, Vintage argued in its appeal that the workers drilling the well--who were employed by Pride Petroleum and Schlumberger Well Services--were “special employees” of Vintage and therefore should only be entitled to workers’ compensation--not multimillion-dollar damage awards.

“They have their remedy under workers’ compensation,” Oxnard attorney David Tredway argued on behalf of the company last week.

But the plaintiffs’ lawyers said the men were contracted to convert the well and were not employees of Vintage, who would have been entitled to workers’ compensation.

*

They also argued Vintage could not avoid liability by shifting the blame to Crawford, who they say was incompetent and unqualified for the job.

A ruling by the Court of Appeal is expected within 90 days. The losing side will have 60 days to petition the California Supreme Court, which would then have to decide whether to hear the case.

“I am hoping that it will be over with by the end of the year,” said Davis, who said she doesn’t really care about the money.

Her son would have turned 32 this week, and her hope, she said, is that the lawsuit will prevent another mother from losing a son.

“All along, I have wanted to see that nobody else would go through this, that nobody else would lose a child,” she said. “Hopefully, [Vintage] will start making sure that they are hiring people who are knowledgeable about what they are doing.”