Plaintiff, a 25 year old employee of DyDee Diaper, sustained devastating injuries, including a below the knee amputation, when the compressed natural gas (CNG) in a delivery truck exploded as plaintiff was loading the truck for the next day’s deliveries. A second employee who was working nearby was also injured and filed a claim. Our client had designed and installed an computerized fueling and monitoring system for DyDee several years earlier, in accordance with Clean Vehicle Education Foundation requirements. Plaintiff alleged that the system allowed DyDee to overfill tanks with CNG long after the company stopped using our client’s computerized system, ultimately resulting in the compromise and failure of the CNG tank. Through aggressive research and investigation into the business of compressed natural gas fueling, we were able to convince plaintiffs that our client’s product did not cause the failure or the explosion, and in the face of a multi million dollar demand to seven defendants, we reached a very nominal settlement for our client. Furthermore, because our client was the only defendant who had a written contract with plaintiffs’ employer, we cross complained and the employer contributed to our client’s settlement amount.
