Triumph Foods and Missouri Gas Energy reached a settlement Monday in the lawsuit that was set for a jury trial to begin the same day. The pork company was suing the natural gas provider in Buchanan County Circuit Court for $19.9 million, stemming from a 2005 explosion that killed one person during the construction of the St. Joseph, MO, pork plant.
Triumph and MGE were in court Oct. 16 for a pretrial conference, asking for more than 40 expert witnesses to be accepted or excluded from the trial. Triumph already settled with the other insurance companies, contractors and subcontractors involved in the facility’s construction, but the pork producer and MGE appeared to reach an impasse two months ago.
Triumph wanted $7.9 million in damages and $12 million in profits the company lost by delaying its opening for 62 days. Triumph’s attorneys argued MGE was responsible for not warning the pork company and its contractors that new steel pipes can absorb the natural gas’ odor while Triumph attorney Mark Gottlieb said that had the company known about that possibility, it would have required spot testing as a safety precaution.
Source: stjoenews.net.
