A Kansas jury has awarded $5 million in damages to plaintiffs in a residential class action lawsuit against Oneok Inc. for a series of gas leaks and explosions in January 2001 near the Yaggy gas storage field outside of Hutchinson, KS. The storage field accident killed two residents and damaged several businesses. Storage operations at the 3 Bcf Yaggy salt cavern have been discontinued.

While the plaintiffs in the residential class action lawsuit sought damages in excess of $50 million exclusive of punitive damages, the jury awarded $5 million in actual damages to the residential class. No damages were awarded to the business class, nor were any punitive damages awarded. The $5 million is covered by insurance, according to Oneok.

The decision follows a $5.25 million punitive damages award in April to the owners of two Hutchinson businesses, Woody’s Furniture and Decor Party Supplies, which had facilities destroyed in the incident.

The first explosion on Jan. 17 leveled one of the downtown businesses and gutted another, and in the aftermath, fire officials found water and gas geysers erupting throughout the city (see Daily GPI, Jan. 29, 2001). Residents were temporarily evacuated. On the following day (Jan. 18), another blast ripped into a trailer home, where an elderly couple, John and Mary Hahn, lived.

Tulsa, OK-based Oneok Inc. reached an agreement in August 2002 year to settle a lawsuit that was brought by the Hahn family (see Daily GPI, Aug. 21, 2002). The elderly couple’s four children brought the multi-million-dollar lawsuit in mid-2001 against Oneok and two affiliates: Kansas Gas Service, a local distribution company based in Overland Park, KS, and Mid Continent Market Center, an intrastate pipeline that operated the storage field.

In the April decision regarding the two businesses, Sedgwick County District Court Judge James Fleetwood accused Oneok of choosing profits over safety and misleading state regulators regarding the high cavern pressures that were used in the Yaggy storage field, which may have contributed to the gas leaks. Oneok has filed an appeal in that case. The appeal is the last remaining piece of litigation in the Yaggy case.

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