Suits filed hours after blast damages homes
Judge issues order for company to preserve evidence related to explosion
Hours after a blast awoke thousands in the Houston area, neighbors with homes damaged by the early morning warehouse explosion began filing lawsuits, attorneys flocked to the Gessner area and a local judge issued an order to preserve evidence.
At 9 a.m. — 4½ hours after the startling explosion — lawyer Robert S. Kwok sent a text blast to former clients offering his services. He got dozens of responses from people asking what they should do. Just after noon, Kwok filed a lawsuit in state court on behalf of families with homes across the bayou from the explosion, suing to preserve the evidence.
Another lawyer had submitted paperwork just before him, a suit for a woman whose home was destroyed about a mile from the Watson Grinding and Manufacturing warehouse. Judge Tanya Garrison, of the 157th Judicial District Court, held an emergency 2 p.m. hearing, where she approved a temporary restraining order prohibiting the company from “changing, altering or destroying any tangible evidence” related to the explosion.
The judge ordered an injunction for 14 days during which the defense must preserve materials that could become evidence in the civil lawsuits. She set a follow-up hearing Feb. 7.
Plaintiffs lawyer Tony Buzbee, who ran an unsuccessful bid to unseat Houston’s mayor in 2019, sued Watson, CenterPoint and several other entities Friday afternoon for negligence in personal injury on behalf of four other people. This lawsuit claims residents suffered injuries to their “necks, backs and other body parts,” in addition to severe damage to their homes and property.
A statement released by Watson late Friday did not address the lawsuits, but expressed sympathy to the victims and an eagerness to cooperate with investigators.
Police allowed at least two lawyers into a restricted command post near the site by the afternoon, according to chatter broadcast on a police scanner. The judge’s order allows attorney’s experts to begin investigating once the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other agencies have completed their work.
Sophie S. Navarro, one of the clients who won the temporary injunction, said in court documents that the explosion shattered windows, cracked walls and destroyed fixtures at her home a mile from the site, making it uninhabitable. She woke up and thought her house was about to collapse, said her lawyer Eric Dick.
Her home’s foundation is broken, her doors won’t shut properly and shingles fell off the roof, the suit says. Dick estimated it may cost more than $50,000 to repair. Navarro is suing the company for failing to properly secure and refrigerate chemicals and ensure public safety. She is seeking damages in excess of $1 million.
“She didn’t ask to be put in the situation. She had a rude awakening,” her lawyer said. He ended the day with 12 clients from the explosion, and thinks the case could be expanded to a class action.
Kwok now represents 13 plaintiffs. He said the Watson case will likely evolve into a mass tort involving several hundred claimants. Kwok sought a swift injunction on behalf of Rigoberto Miranda Jr. and Ingrid Miranda and their relatives Daniel and Erica Bravo, who live nearby.
The Miranda family awoke to find their ceiling falling in on them while they slept, Kwok said. Their home moved 6 inches off its foundation, he said, as if someone had unsnapped it off a Lego set.
The state bar jumped into the fray, warning the public about the perils of illegal ambulance-chasing lawyers who may come knocking. About half an hour after the judge issued the injunction for Miranda and the other plaintiffs, the State Bar of Texas issued a news release with the specified goal of educating the public about improper solicitation in the wake of “the northwest Houston plant explosion.”
“The State Bar of Texas reminds the public that in many cases it is a crime in Texas for a lawyer or someone representing a lawyer to contact a person for purposes of legal representation if the person has not first requested the call or personal visit,” the news release states.
Attorney Tom Carse became an expert in ambulance chasing, or barratry, after he filed 39 lawsuits against lawyers who illegally solicited business in the wake of disasters, often showing up at victims’ homes unannounced.
“The bottom line is it’s the underbelly of this profession,” Carse said. “You’ve got lawyers who can’t make an honest living doing it the right way so they cheat in various ways. … They hit these people at the time when they’re the most vulnerable and they don’t make intelligent decisions.”
But Kwok defended his swift action Friday morning of notifying his client base via text about their rights.
“You move quickly in these case because evidence gets lost or destroyed or altered and (the judge’s) order prohibits them from doing just that,” he said. “The focus is to determine the root cause and all potential responsible parties.”
Houstonians have survived four explosions in the past 12 months, he noted. “And the majority of the time the people who suffered damages don’t get the full measure of their damages recovered,” he said.