$51 Million Verdict After Corroded Boiler Pipe Left Two Children With Permanent Brain Damage
Won by Loncar Lyon Jenkins.
A Dallas County jury awarded $51 million in August 2024 to a South Dallas mother and her two young children after a corroded boiler exhaust pipe at their apartment complex channeled carbon monoxide into their home in 2015, leaving both children with irreversible brain injuries.
What happened
In May 2015, TiCourtney McMullen and her two small children were living at Red Bird Trails Apartments in South Dallas when carbon monoxide began seeping into their unit. The source was a boiler exhaust vent pipe in the adjacent mechanical room. The pipe had corroded and partially separated, creating a gap that sent the colorless, odorless gas directly into the walls and ceiling of the apartment. McMullen developed severe headaches. Her toddler son and infant daughter received a far more damaging dose.
Both children suffered permanent brain damage. A carbon monoxide specialist who evaluated them testified that the gas had triggered immune-system attacks on brain tissue, producing injuries that cannot heal. The children exhibited marked developmental delays, difficulty with attention and focus, and an inability to communicate verbally at ages well past when those skills normally develop.
What made the case particularly damning was what the property's own records showed. An inspector had flagged the corroded vent pipe approximately one year before the poisoning. Management at Red Bird Trails and its parent company, Bridgeway Capital, dismissed the finding as cosmetic. No repair was made. Photographic evidence introduced at trial showed the extent of the deterioration and the gap where the pipe had come apart.
The plaintiffs were represented by the law firm of Ted B. Lyon and Associates. Ted Lyon, the veteran trial lawyer and former Texas state senator who now serves as managing partner of Loncar Lyon Jenkins, assigned the case to attorney Richard Mann, who tried it as lead counsel. His team presented nine years of evidence to a Dallas County jury beginning in July 2024. A maintenance worker testified via video that he personally observed the rust and corrosion on the vent well before the incident. Expert testimony tied that neglected corrosion directly to the children's neurological injuries.
After a day and a half of deliberations, the jury returned its verdict on August 13, 2024. It assigned 90 percent of fault to Red Bird Trails Apartments and Bridgeway Capital and 10 percent to Urban Custom Plumbing, a contractor that had performed boiler work. The total award was $51 million, including approximately $30 million for future medical expenses and $9 million in exemplary damages reflecting a finding of gross negligence. Defendants filed appeals at both the Texas Fifth Court of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court; those proceedings were pending as of the date this story was published.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
More proven verdicts from Loncar Lyon Jenkins
All Loncar Lyon Jenkins proven verdicts →A Kaufman County jury awarded $296 million in compensatory damages against Koch Industries after a corroded, unmaintained butane pipeline exploded and killed two teenagers on August 24, 1996.
A Dallas jury awarded $84.25 million in 2008 after a 26-foot U-Haul truck with a failed parking brake rolled over Talmadge Waldrip, leaving him bedridden and requiring round-the-clock care.
A Texas county court at law jury found a design defect in the handling of a 1996 Ford Explorer that rolled over after a rear tire lost its tread in July 2003, killing Diane Wiles. The jury put one-third of the responsibility on Ford, one-third on the driver and one-third on Ms. Wiles, and the court entered a judgment of $7,370,197.16 in actual damages. The Dallas Court of Appeals reversed in 2011 for lack of evidence of a safer alternative design.
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