Case Description
Attorney Adam Lewis and our trial team, working alongside co-counsel from the Moye Firm, Kwok Daniel, and the Antony Firm, secured a $61.5 million verdict against 3M for 24 survivors of the January 2020 Watson Grinding explosion in northwest Houston.
In the early morning of January 24, 2020, a 2,000-gallon propylene tank at the Watson Grinding facility on Gessner Road had been leaking through the night. No alarm ever sounded. When a worker flipped a light switch, the accumulated gas ignited, tearing through the plant and the surrounding neighborhood. Three people were killed. Dozens were injured. Hundreds of nearby homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed.
At the center of the case was a failure that should never have happened. 3M was responsible for inspecting and servicing the gas detection and alarm system meant to warn of a leak like this one. That system was incapable of doing its job. The gas sensors had never been correctly wired into Watson Grinding's control system, meaning no matter how much propylene escaped the tank, no alarm could sound and no automatic shutdown could occur. 3M's technicians visited the facility in 2017, 2018, and 2019, with the last of those visits coming roughly six months before the explosion. The defect remained.
Our case established that 3M knew the risk, understood what its inaction could mean for the workers and neighbors around the plant, and chose to act with conscious indifference to their safety.
The jury agreed. After hearing the evidence, they returned $61.5 million for the 24 survivors we represented.