CM Obtained $29,000,000 Verdict In Missouri Fire Case
November 19, 2007
Destroyed Little Tikes Manufacturing Plant
In late August 2006, a St. Francois County, Missouri jury returned one of Missouri’s largest tort verdicts in favor of Clausen Miller client, Newell Rubbermaid d/b/a Little Tikes, in the amount of $29,000,000 in a case tried by James F. Smith and James J. Bigoness and assisted by Richard Strawbridge. The case arose from a September 8, 1998 fire that completely destroyed the storage and production areas of the Farmington, Missouri factory which manufactured Little Tikes playground equipment. The jury awarded Little Tikes damages for replacement of the destroyed equipment and inventory, reconstruction of the destroyed plant, and the loss of business income during reconstruction.
The defendant was Entergy Systems and Service, Inc., who had contracted with Little Tikes to install an energy saving device in each of the plant’s overhead high pressure sodium lights, and to correct any defects found in the lighting system. High pressure sodium lights are used exclusively for industrial lighting and it was known by the defendant that the lights could be dangerous if they were to fall because the bulb reached 2000 degrees when lit. Jim Bigoness and Jim Smith and local attorney Tom Burcham proved that the defendant should have attached a safety chain to the light fixture which would have prevented the fallen light from coming into contact with and igniting combustible products on the floor of the plant.
The defendant disputed the cause of the fire and claimed that it did not owe a duty to install safety chains, especially since Little Tikes did not have the chains installed when the plant was built five years before. Kansas City Fire Chief Richard “Smokey” Dyer, who had testified as an expert in the cause and origin of fires in over 300 cases, testified for the defense that a fallen light was not the cause the fire. CM attorneys offered the testimony of State of Missouri fire marshals who concluded that a high pressure sodium light had fallen and ignited cardboard boxes and polyethylene products on the floor, even though they had categorized the cause as “undetermined” in their reports.
Defendant did not make a settlement offer before trial. The jury took just over an hour to reach a verdict.
