Chevron Pays $756,000 Judgment After Wyoming Jury Finds It Mostly at Fault in a Truck Driver's Fatal Fall
After trial: Reduced and paid. The jury's $1.2 million finding was cut to Chevron's 63 percent share of fault, giving a $756,000 judgment entered March 2, 2017.
Won by The Spence Law Firm.
A federal jury in Casper found Chevron U.S.A. Inc. negligent in the February 2014 death of truck driver Thomas Coffey, who fell while loading molten sulfur from a three rail safety cage at Chevron's Glencoe Terminal near Kemmerer, Wyoming. The bottom rail of the cage was missing. The jury awarded Coffey's widow, Sharon Coffey, $1.2 million in wrongful death damages and apportioned fault at 63 percent to Chevron, 37 percent to Coffey's employer, and none to Coffey. Because Wyoming makes each actor answerable only for its own share of fault, the court entered judgment against Chevron for $756,000, which Chevron paid within the month. Noah W. Drew and Tyson Logan of The Spence Law Firm represented the widow.
What happened
On February 26, 2014, Thomas Coffey was loading molten sulfur into the top of a tanker trailer at Chevron's Glencoe Terminal near Kemmerer, Wyoming, when he fell and was killed. He was driving for Bonneville Transloaders Inc., which had been hired to haul the sulfur to a plant in Rock Springs. It was his first time loading at the Chevron facility, and his employer had sent a coworker along to train him.
Chevron had installed two custom three rail Carbis safety cages at the terminal so that workers loading trailers at that height would be enclosed while they worked. The bottom rail on both cages was gone. Chevron's terminal operator had noticed the missing rails at some point before 2014, and who cut them off, and why, was disputed throughout the case. Sharon Coffey's case was that her husband lost his balance lifting Chevron's loading arm and fell through the gap the missing rail left. Chevron's case was that he tripped on the truck's spill trough.
Sharon Coffey sued Chevron U.S.A. Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming under the state's Wrongful Death Act, arguing the company controlled and maintained the modified cage, required drivers to use it, and failed to provide a reasonably safe place to work. Chevron argued it had ceded control of the loading equipment to the trucking company. In January 2017 the court denied Chevron summary judgment on liability but granted it on the claim for punitive damages, holding there was no evidence Chevron's conduct reached the willful and wanton standard Wyoming requires, a state of mind approaching an intent to do harm. The negligence claim went to a jury.
The case was tried before the Honorable Scott W. Skavdahl in Casper, to a jury of eight, from February 21 through March 1, 2017. Noah W. Drew and Tyson Logan of The Spence Law Firm represented Sharon Coffey at trial.
On March 1, 2017, the jury found Chevron negligent and set wrongful death damages at $1.2 million. It apportioned fault at 63 percent to Chevron, 37 percent to Coffey's employer, and none to Coffey himself. Under Wyo. Stat. 1-1-109, a Wyoming defendant answers only for its own percentage of fault, so the court entered judgment against Chevron for $756,000.00 on March 2, 2017, with post judgment interest at 0.82 percent. Coffey's employer was not a defendant and paid nothing under this judgment. Chevron paid, and Sharon Coffey filed a satisfaction of judgment on March 24, 2017.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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