Mass Tort Update- |
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- Red Bank, NJ 732-747-9003
Mass Tort Update
Grovatt v. Midwest Products, Inc.
June 11, 2002
RESULT: $ 16 million settlement.
STATE: New Jersey
SUMMARY: On May 6, 1997, Roy Grovatt was filling the 10 gallon Guardian Portable Air Tank with compressed air at his family's farm when the tank ruptured under pressure in an explosive manner striking Roy Grovatt in the face and head. As a result of the rupture/explosion, Roy Grovatt's skull was partially blown away and he was rendered profoundly brain damaged and a spastic quadriplegic. His parents, Howard Grovatt and Thelma Grovatt, witnessed and experienced the occurrence, the consequences thereof, and the loss of Roy's society and companionship, and registered a claim for emotional distress.
Plaintiffs alleged that this tank was defective and substandard in virtually every aspect from design to manufacture, from welds to safety features, from labels to warnings.
The physics of the Guardian Portable Air Tank in question, like all pressure vessels filled with compressed air, is that when the tank is filled with condensed air, the air within the tank will gradually cool and the unavoidable moisture in the air will inevitably condense into water and lie within the tank at its lowest point. Unbeknownst to the user, the water within the tank will then cause the shell of the tank to corrode from the inside out. As the corrosion progresses, the thickness of the steel shell becomes thinner and thinner, until, within only a few years, the ability of the vessel's shell to harbor the condensed air pressure is jeopardized, causing the tank to rupture at a pressure well within that at which the tank is intended to be utilized.
Plaintiffs contended that the Guardian Portable Air Tank was defective for numerous reasons, including, but not limited to, the following: (1) The Guardian Portable Air Tank was not equipped with adequate warnings, labels, instruction booklets, operation manuals and other product literature necessary to properly protect, warn, educate and inform foreseeable users of the fact that this hidden corrosion occurs due to condensation inside the tank, which will inevitably cause the tank to leak and/or rupture in an explosive manner; (2) Defendants never engaged in any type of safety program to track and/or analyze accidents involving portable air tanks, and never utilized any safety program to attempt to track its products and identify end users so that they could recall tanks, if necessary, and/or provide consumers with updated safety information, like the need to destroy the tank after only a few years; (3) Defendants failed to stamp the Guardian Portable Air Tank with a "Destroy Date," which would instruct the user of the tank to discard it within three to seven years because the integrity of its shell would become vulnerable, unsafe and likely to rupture; and (4) Defendants failed to comply with numerous sections of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code, which is a published code of safety standards pertaining to the design, manufacture and labeling of portable air tanks, like the Guardian Portable Air Tank, and required for such tanks sold within the State of New Jersey. For example: -No Drain - the Guardian Portable Air Tank, in violation of the ASME Code, was not equipped with a drain through which water, which accumulated within the tank, could be routinely drained, reducing the amount of corrosion and preserving the integrity of the shell; -Substandard Steel Thickness - the Guardian Portable Air Tank utilized substandard and thinner 14 gauge steel [approximately .074 inches thick], rather than 12 gauge steel [approximately .104 inches thick]; -No Inspection Port - the Guardian Portable Air Tank, in violation of the ASME Code, was not equipped with an inspection port so that the quality of the weld and the integrity of the steel shell could be periodically inspected to make certain that the tank was safe; -Defective Weld - the longitudinal weld on the cylinder of the Guardian Portable Air Tank as designed by defendants was defective and in violation of the ASME Code in that it was situated along the bottom at the lowest point of the tank where occult water within the tank would accumulate, exposing the tank's most vulnerable seam to unnecessary corrosive stresses; the welds were also of substandard quality and failed to satisfy the full penetration standards and other requirements set forth in the ASME Code); and -No Telltale Holes - the Guardian Portable Air Tank was not designed with telltale holes or any other type of fail safe device recommended in the ASME Code that would allow air to vent from the ruptured tank in a controlled, rather than explosive manner.
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