Power plant owner gets new trial on liability for worker’s death

A California appellate court overturned a jury’s $150 million verdict in favor of the family of a worker killed in a power plant explosion and ordered a new trial over whether the parent company is liable for the worker’s death.

Sentinel Energy Center LLC owns a power plant in North Palm Springs, California, and hired DGC Operations LLC to manage and operate it, according to Collins v. Diamond Generating Corp., filed in the Court of Appeal for the 4th District, Division Three.

In 2017, a group of DGC Operations employees performing annual maintenance on the plant failed to follow protocols for depressurization of a fuel filter skid, causing an explosion, according to court documents. DGC Operations employee Daniel Collins was killed in the blast.

Mr. Collins’ family sued Diamond Generating Corp. Diamond has a 50% indirect ownership interest in Sentinel and is also the parent company of DGC Operations. A jury found that Diamond’s failures in safety oversight led directly to Mr. Collins’ death and awarded the family more than $150 million in damages.

Diamond appealed, contending that the family’s claims should have been barred by the Privette doctrine, which provides that the hirer of an independent contractor presumptively delegates responsibility for workplace safety to the contractor and is not liable for on-the-job injuries to the contractor’s workers.

Diamond contended that as a partial indirect owner of Sentinel, it delegated any responsibility it had over worker safety through Sentinel to DGC Operations. Diamond requested a jury instruction on the Privette doctrine, but the trial judge declined to issue the instruction after finding it inapplicable.

The Court of Appeal said the Privette instruction was warranted by substantial evidence and the jury could reasonably have reached a result more favorable to Diamond in the absence of the error.

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