Giant Petroleum Company Settles Sugar Creek Injury Case Filed By Client of Two-Person Walters Law Before Trial

25 October 2006

BP has agreed to settle a personal injury case brought against it by a small local law firm two weeks before trial was set to determine if their client's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was caused by pollution from the giant petroleum company's former suburban Sugar Creek refinery here.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061024/CGTU056 )

BP attorneys negotiated the settlement with the two-person law local legal team of Lon Walters and Christin Cipolla of Walters Law Firm LLC with assistance from local attorney David Summers. Walters said the settlement yesterday is his firm's second victory in a series of more than 30 personal injury cases brought against BP due to alleged pollution at its former Sugar Creek refinery.

In announcing the settlement, Walters said he could not disclose financial terms due to an agreement with BP. The case involved 20-year-old Justin Detel, who has lived near the former Sugar Creek refinery his entire life. Detel was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at age 11. The trial was slated to get underway October 30 in Jackson County District 16 Court here. Deter claims pollution from the Sugar Creek refinery caused his disease.

In a previous jury trail trial portrayed by the news media as pitting David versus Goliath, the tiny Walters Law Firm won $13.3 million plus undisclosed punitive damages for Leonard Ryan, whose wife died from leukemia blamed on 160 million gallons of gasoline leaking into Sugar Creek from 1948 until 1996.

Walters said the 160 millions of gasoline contaminating Sugar Creek near the closed refinery amounted to 14 times more petroleum than spillage from the Exxon Alaskan Valdez oil tanker. In 1989 the Exxon Valdez dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound after running aground. Exxon, now called ExxonMobile is fighting a $4.5 billion judgment brought by Alaskan fisherman and others whose livelihoods allegedly were hurt by the spill.

People living near the former refinery began complaining in the 1940s that petroleum fumes were entering their homes through basement drains from the Sugar Creek refinery's underground pipes. Walters said BP's internal documents state the firm leaked 56,000 barrels of gasoline per year into Sugar Creek. He said other documents show BP Petroleum officials were aware of the problem in the 1950s but failed to fix it.

Despite settling some property damage lawsuits in 2000 due to gasoline leakage into Sugar Creek, BP is facing 32 other personal injury and wrongful death cases associated with its former refinery in suburban Sugar Creek located in Greater Kansas City's northeastern suburbs. Walters believes BP's strategy is to string the cases out over 15 years which increases the likelihood the clients will not live to see either a settlement or their day in court.

"The courtroom is the great equalizer," said Walters. "Once you step into the courtroom, BP's advantages go away. You're on equal footing with them there."

Further Contacts:

Lon Walters of the Walters Law Firm: 816-472-1400

Ron Rybarczyk, public affairs director for BP Sugar Creek number is:

816-254-3673

Source: prnewswire

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