A Denver-based oil company could be on the hook for as much as $120 million after a federal jury found company officials responsible for a gas tank explosion that left a worker burned in 2004.
"What will it take to make them do things right?" Tyson Logan, an attorney for Michael Melton, asked a federal jury. "He will always live in chronic pain."
After hearing testimony for six days, the jury on Monday evening found EnCana Oil & Gas Inc., a company based in Denver which owns a natural gas plant in Lisbon Valley, Utah, liable for Melton's injuries.
The same jury began hearing testimony Monday in a three-day trial to determine damages.
According to the suit, Melton and other workers were cleaning a natural gas drain sump in the interior of a natural gas tank on July 11, 2004. At the time, the plant was owned by Tom Brown Inc., which merged with EnCana a year later.
After cleaning, a supervisor told Melton that he had to vacuum a small amount of water. It was at that time that Melton reported hearing a "whumph" and felt the force of the explosion. Melton said he had just enough time to push his son, also a worker, out of the way and cover his face with his arms before a wall of flame overtook him.
Melton suffered third-degree burns over 14 percent of his body, mainly to his hands, arms, shoulders and face. Medical evidence showed that Melton's hands were "gloved," meaning that most of the skin on his hands and arms had sloughed off. During two months in a burn unit in Colorado, doctors took skin graphs from Melton's thighs and carefully transplanted it to his hands.
Logan said Melton's hands are essentially "claws" and he has to do daily therapy to keep his fingers stretched out. He also suffered burns in his ear canals and now has to wear hearing aids. But none of these things compare to his chronic pain in his arms, Logan said.
"It's like getting hit with a sledge hammer on his hands over, and over again," Logan told the jury. Melton takes morphine, Lortab and several other medications each day to keep the pain at bay. In addition, he receives regular injections behind the muscles in his neck.
Logan asked the jury to award his client damages for past and future medical expenses, plus punitive damages, all totaling $120 million.
J. Angus Edwards, attorney for EnCana Oil & Gas, told the jury his company didn't dispute that Melton has already spent around $300,000 in medical costs but argued that $120 million did not match his future needs.
The jury is expected to reach a decision today.
E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com