Jury awards about $117 million to family of Phillips blast victim

HOUSTON (AP) -- Though a jury awarded about $117 million Monday to the family members of a worker killed in the June 1999 explosion at a Phillips Petroleum Co. chemical plant, Texas law will allow them to receive only a fraction of the money if the judgment is upheld.

A Harris County jury ordered Chevron Phillips Chemical Co., a joint venture between Oklahoma-based Phillips and Chevron, to pay $7.85 million in damages and $110 million in punitive damages. The company quickly promised an appeal.

However, state law limits punitive damages, and plaintiffs'

attorney John Eddie Williams said the end sum could be much less.

"It looks like it could take away over $100 million of the punitive," said Williams, who represents the widow of Juan Martinez Jr., one of two workers killed in the blast. Company attorney Reagan Simpson estimates the punitive award will shrink to about $3.2 million.

Some jurors were angry afterward that state law would drastically reduce the damages they prescribed. The reduction will occur because jurors found no intentional wrongdoing by the company.

Williams had asked jurors for about $440 million. Company lawyer Kenneth Tekell argued for damages closer to $3 million.

"Our sympathy goes out to the Martinez family the explosion that killed them and injured four others.

The Houston Ship Channel plant complex has endured three deadly explosions in the last 12 years. In 1989, 23 died and 132 were hurt when the polyethylene unit exploded.

On March 27 of this year, another K-Resin blast killed one and injured 69. In September, Chevron Phillips announced several new safety initiatives for the complex.

"Serious accidents and fatalities are unacceptable to Chevron Phillips," the company said in a news release. "Safety is our highest priority in all of our plants and facilities around the world."

K-Resin is a trade name for a type of clear plastic used in drinking cups and other applications.