Birmingham office

Jimmy Walsh – a partner with RumbergerKirk in Birmingham – and firm associate Daniel Feig recently won a defense verdict for Conex International in the Circuit Court of Tuscaloosa.

Conex, which provides project planning, management, and execution for new construction and maintenance projects primarily in oil and petroleum refineries, was sued by several Hunt Refining employees for damages sustained from a chemical blast that occurred in 2001. The plaintiffs claimed that Conex – which provided maintenance work on some of Hunt’s equipment in the weeks leading up to the explosion – failed to complete work at the plant earlier in the day, leading to inaccurate readings on monitoring equipment and, subsequently, the explosion. They sought damage for doctors’ bills, mental anguish, loss of compensation and money for future medical treatments.

Walsh argued that Conex was neither responsible for, nor touched the instruments in question. He contended that internal employees at Hunt were in charge of monitoring them. Furthermore, he asserted that each piece of equipment had a backup instrument – and if the Hunt employees had read these instruments, they would have been able to prevent the accident. Walsh concluded that the accident was due to a lack of training and poor supervision, and could have been avoided. The jury agreed and ruled in favor of the defendant.

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RumbergerKirk provides litigation and counseling services in a wide range of civil practice areas including products liability, commercial litigation, intellectual property, environmental, employment, insurance, professional liability, health care and administrative law. Offices are located in Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Tallahassee and Birmingham, Alabama.