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DAVE’S WORLD
By David Howell
A federal lawsuit filed in June by eight people who formerly worked at Holley Carburetor and/or BorgWarner is slowly churning through the legal system. You may recall, Greenville attorneys George Hollowell, Jr. and Andrew Tominello held a press conference the day they filed the lawsuit, and multiple media outlets covered the story including news stations from Memphis and Tupelo.
A second lawsuit is still expected with hundreds more plaintiffs, maybe as many as 900 people who worked at Holley and BorgWarner. The former workers have come forward with cancers and other serious health problems. The allegations are that prolonged exposure to an industrial solvent, trichloroethylene (TCE), used at the plant for decades poisoned the air, water and soil and is the cause for workers’ health problems.
The story starts in 1972 when the Holley Automotive Division of Colt Industries acquired the former Ram Tool manufacturing facility and began manufacturing automotive parts including carburetors. Corporate successor Coltec Industries, Inc. continued to manufacture automotive components at the plant until 1996 when BorgWarner purchased the plant.
In 1999, through one or more corporate transactions, the B.F. Goodrich Company acquired Coltec and assumed environmental liability for the toxic chemical in the environment at the plant site in Water Valley. In 2001, the B.F. Goodrich Company changed its name to Goodrich Corporation. And finally, in 2002, the Goodrich Corporation formed EnPro Industries, Inc. and EnPro contractually assumed Goodrich Corporation’s environmental liabilities.
This means BorgWarner and successor, Solero Technologies, did not assume the environmental liability for the toxic spill.
EnPro is a multi-billion dollar company that provides industrial technology products and solutions for a variety of industries including aerospace, energy, life sciences, nuclear energy, photonics, semiconductors and space exploration. EnPro has already paid millions to property owners in the area after reaching settlements in two earlier lawsuits. The problem cited in the earlier lawsuits is that TCE was released by the Holley Automotive Division of Colt Industries and contaminated the soil and groundwater at the plant and spread, covering approximately 340 acres north and northwest of the former Holley Carburetor plant. This contamination negatively impacted the value of the property located in the 340 acre area called a plume.
Yalobusha County received $3 million in the settlement, as county-owned property in the area contaminated by TCE included the hospital, health department and other buildings. A settlement was already reached in a second lawsuit filed by over 30 people who owned property, businesses or houses in the impacted area. The settlement was confidential, and the dollar amount paid by EnPro to the property owners was not disclosed.
Now back to the lawsuit filed in June, there are six defendants – EnPro Industries and EnPro Holdings, Inc., Dextrex Corporation, Italmatch SC, LLC and Italmatch DW, LLC. All have filed motions for dismissal for failure to state a claim, and the judge has granted on a stay (or hold) on the lawsuit until these motions are resolved. The stay was granted in August, and the legal filings since are a series of back-and-forth exchanges between the plaintiffs and defendants about the merits of the defendants’ motions to dismiss the case for failure to state a claim.
In layman’s terms, this means determining if federal court is the lawful forum for this case. Presumably the judge will rule on these motions in the near future.
Attorneys for EnPro filed the first motion requesting the court to dismiss the lawsuit. The attorneys argue in the motion that the former workers’ claims are barred because the Mississippi Workers Compensation Act provides the sole avenue for employees injured in the workplace. The attorneys are also arguing about another important component that may be a deciding factor on the lawsuit moving forward, if Coltec acted with an actual intent to injure the employees.
Attorneys for Dextrex filed a similar motion to dismiss the lawsuit for failure to state a claim. Dextrex manufactured the degreasing machine and supplied the TCE for the machine that was used at the plant.
Attorneys for Dextrex argue that the lawsuit improperly commingles the allegations against all defendants without identifying Dextrex’s involvement in the alleged wrong claims, along with other legalese. An instruction manual for the degreasing machine was also included in the filing, and Dextrex’s attorneys argue that the warnings were clear – prolonged contact or repeated breathing of vapor is dangerous.
The Italmatch companies acquired Dextrex in 2017, and have also filed a separate motion for dismissal. Basically, they are claiming they have no connection to this saga and were late to the party.
That is where the case stands now, with the last filing almost six weeks ago. I’m no lawyer, but it sure looks like this could drag on for quiet a while and it is going to be a doozy – if they make it out of the gate.
