Gas supplier to compensate lorry man for 2015 El Pecos Maraval blast

THE company which supplied liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), or cooking gas, to the El Pecos restaurant in Maraval in 2015 has been ordered to compensate the lorry man who assisted in the delivery for injuries he received in the deadly blast.

A dozen people were seriously injured in the explosion on February 5, 2015. Four months later, the restaurant’s accountant, John Soo Ping Chow died at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

On Friday, Justice Ricky Rahim ordered North Plant LPG Co-operative Society to compensate lorry man Gregory Maicoo.

Maicoo will receive $160,000 in general damages for North Plant’s negligence, plus interest. The company will also have to pay his legal costs. Rahim also said the $20,140.11 Maicoo received as workmen’s compensation will not be deducted from the court’s award.

Maicoo had filed a personal injury claim against North Plant arising out of the explosion during the delivery of gas to the El Pecos restaurant.

In his decision, Rahim found that North Plant’s agent, the driver of the gas truck, who accompanied Maicoo, failed to use standard operating practices and procedures in delivering the gas and failed to take all reasonable and effective measures by supervising or ensuring a safe system of work.

It was the lorry man’s case that the company and its agent breached its duty by failing to supply a functional hose which resulted in injury.

Maicoo’s job included travelling on the truck and assisting his colleague in reeling and unreeling the gas hose.

A fire investigation report suggested there was a leak in the delivery line of the gas truck.

Maicoo was burned on his face, scalp and hands during the explosion.

He said he had received no training to handle LPG or emergency procedures, although he recalled attending two safety meetings relating to the delivery of two types of cylinders.

At the trial, North Plant maintained the trucks and apparatus were inspected each morning before being sent out for deliveries, and denied liability for Maicoo’s injuries, as safety meetings were held and he was provided with personal protective equipment.

In his decision, Rahim held that Maicoo was properly trained in dispensing LPG and that while the truck and apparatus were properly functioning that day, “in relation to the hose, the position is different in fact.”

“The evidence, in this case, points to there being either a tear or degradation in the run of the hose close to the nozzle which resulted in the escape of volatile and flammable gas,’ the judge said as he referred to Maicoo’s evidence and the reports from the Fire Service and the Forensic Science Centre. The latter found evidence of charring along the hose.

He said, “It was the duty of the defendant to provide a hose that was fit for purpose.”

He also said it was likely that the damage to the hose occurred during the deliveries that morning.

In Maicoo’s case, the judge said the case was dependent on whether North Plant’s agent was negligent in turning on the flow valve when it was unsafe to do so and if it could be imputed to the employer.

Rahim said it was pellucid from the evidence that the pump was started even before the hose was unreeled, and the flow valve was engaged before the hose had been connected to the El Pecos tank before Maicoo gave word that it was safe to do so.

He said it was not only foreseeable but also obvious to the company’s agent that turning on the gas before connecting the hose would result in combustion in the corridor of the business place.

“The court, therefore, finds that the acts were so closely connected with the employment and business of the defendant employer that the defendant must bear the liability for the acts. The court will therefore impute liability on the basis of the doctrine of vicarious liability.”

Maicoo testified that on the day of the incident, his co-worker parked close to the gateway to the back corridor to get access to the restaurant's gas tanks.

The pump was engaged and Maicoo began unreeling the hose while waiting to access the gas tank. He said he walked along the corridor at the back of the building to access the tanks. but as he was about to connect the nozzle, he noticed a white cloudy, misty smoke, smelling of gas, rapidly escaping from the hose about ten-11 feet from the nozzle. The corridor filled with gas. He immediately ran to a nearby sink. but it had no water.

He covered his face with his hands and soon after, there was an explosion and he was surrounded by fire. His hair was burnt, as were both his hands, and said he felt as if his entire body was on fire.

At the trial, the company argued even if it was liable in negligence, Maicoo was only entitled to damages for the burns to his hands, because he did not evacuate the building when he smelled the gas, and could have avoided his injuries.

Rahim said that argument was “disingenuous.”

“The duty to mitigate cannot apply in these circumstances, as they were urgent emergency circumstances in which the claimant’s life and well-being were put at immediate risk.

“He was, therefore, only expected to do what he may have been able to do with immediate dispatch given the dire circumstances. It is his evidence that he applied his training by attempting to wet a rag to place it on his face but that there was no water in the pipe. In the court’s view, he, therefore, did the next and only action available to him which was to stoop down close to the sink and cover his face. For this he cannot be faulted,” the judge said.

In 2015, another judge, Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams, also found North Plant negligent and liable for damage to the property which housed the restaurant.

Continental Corporation, the owner of the Royal Palm Plaza in Maraval, which housed El Pecos and several other businesses, sued North Plant for negligence for loss, damage and expenses caused by the gas supplier’s employees in delivering liquid gas to the restaurant.

Quinlan-Williams found North Plant to have caused the deadly explosion at the restaurant. She ordered North Plant to pay compensation of $600,000 to the property’s owner.

Rahim acknowledged attorneys told him of Quinlan-Williams's judgment and findings of fact, but said he did not read the decision and was unaware of its findings, so he was not influenced by them in coming to his.

There are two other lawsuits involving the blast still before the courts. In those, El Pecos has filed a claim against the gas supplier, and a customer who was collecting food at the restaurant has also filed a claim for compensation against El Pecos and the gas supplier.

Maicoo was represented by attorney Ancil Moses. North Plant was represented by attorneys Kelvin Ramkissoon and Nizam Saladeen.