First lawsuit filed for Chevron fire

[alp227]

Source: SF Chron

Attorneys filed the first lawsuit Wednesday against Chevron in connection to last week's toxic refinery fire and called for an independent monitor to oversee future safety inspections at the Richmond plant.

Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris and two colleagues filed the suit in Contra Costa Superior Court on behalf of eight residents who live near the plant and suffered health problems they attributed to the Aug. 6 blaze.

The suit seeks unspecified damages and accuses the corporation of gross negligence for ignoring what the attorneys described as a troublesome safety record at the Crude Unit No. 4, where investigators said it appears a 40-year-old pipe failed and was the possible source of the fire.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/First-lawsuit-filed-for-Chevron-fire-3791525.php

[DCKit]

1. Until it costs more for a corporation and management to break the law than to pay a minimal fine...

(always a fraction of the derived profit) this kind of crap will never end. The fines need to be drastically punitive, and those responsible need to be imprisoned or personally fined until they squeal like Ned Beatty in Deliverance.

Money is the only language they understand and the only way to punish them.

[lunatica]

2. The reality is that they won't pay anything out of their profits

Gas has already gone way up here in the Bay Area. Sadly we're the ones paying for all of it and their profits aren't touched by any laws.