A Pennsylvania candymaker ignored warnings of a gas leak at its chocolate factory and is responsible for the next one. explosion that killed seven workers and injured several others, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The family of Judith “Judy” Lopez-Moran, a 55-year-old mother of three, has filed what their attorneys call the first-ever wrongful death lawsuit against RM Palmer Co. after the March explosion in West Reading.
Workers smelled gas the day of the explosion and notified Palmer, but the 75-year-old family-owned company “did nothing,” the lawsuit said.
“The gas leak at the factory and the catastrophic explosion it caused was foreseeable, predictable, and preventable,” the complaint said. “Sadly, the death and suffering of Judith Lopez-Moran was preventable.”
The lawsuit, filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, also names the gas utility UGI. The company declined to comment on pending litigation.
Authorities are still investigating the cause of the explosion, which leveled a building at the factory complex and destroyed several other buildings in West Reading.
Federal safety officials previously confirmed they were studying the role of a natural gas pipeline in the explosion. The National Transportation Safety Board called the incident a “natural gas” explosion and fire, citing preliminary information from local authorities and the utility about the role of the pipeline.
Ben Hasty/Reading Eagle via AP
Complaints of the smell of gas before the explosion
Palmer officials had to evacuate immediately after being told about the smell of gas but instead “made a representation to factory workers, including Judith Lopez-Moran, that the factory was safe and that there was no gas leak, ” said the suit.
Palmer, according to the suit, “intended to mislead factory workers … so that factory workers would continue to work and so that factory downtime would be minimized.”
Patricia Borges, who survived the explosion and is a friend and co-worker of Lopez-Moran, previously told how her arm caught fire when the building was engulfed in flames. He then fell on the floor into a vat of liquid chocolate. Borges told The Associated Press how he and others complained about the smell of gas about 30 minutes before the factory exploded.
Palmer offered his condolences but has said little since the explosion. The candy company, which makes seasonal chocolates for occasions such as Easter, Christmas and Halloween, employs about 850 people, according to its website. The West Reading factory has been there since the early 1960s.
“As members of the Palmer team”
“The seven we lost are always in our prayers, and to those injured we wish a speedy recovery. Over the years we have worked together many have become personal friends and all valued members of Palmer team. will be felt forever,” the Palmer family said in a statement five days after the blast.
The law firm representing Lopez-Moran’s family, Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, said it represented more than a dozen victims of the blast.
