Federal jury awards record $104 million to victims in 2017 DeRidder paper mill explosion

Victims from an explosion at a paper mill in DeRidder seven years ago have been awarded more than $104 million by a Baton Rouge jury in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. The attorney representing the plaintiffs says it’s a record breaking amount for Louisiana. The incident happened on February 8th, 2017 at Packaging Corporation of America. Three workers were killed and several suffered catastrophic injuries. Kyle Findley of the Arnold & Itkin Law Firm in Houston represented nine of the workers. Findley said the jury agreed with the plaintiffs that the cause of the explosion was “the foul condensate tank not being drained and purged in accordance with proper procedure.” Additionally, Findley said jurors agreed that “a hot work permit was falsified and not properly implemented in accordance with policies, and that created an explosive atmosphere that led to the horrific event of allowing workers to perform hot work above the tank.” Findley noted that the total liability for the defendants, including interest that accrued, amounted to $141 million.