Jury Rejects $370M Ask in Injury Case, Awards $360K

Five contractors who told jurors they were seriously injured during a March 2021 incident at the Air Liquide Large Industries facility in Pasadena and were seeking $370 million in damages were recently awarded a total of $360,000.

The plaintiffs — Maximo Grimaldo, Cesar Gonzalez, Hector Gonzalez, Sabino Moreno-Perez and Juan Salazar — filed suit in May 2021, alleging in the petition they were injured in a “catastrophic plant explosion,” suffering hearing loss and other injuries that later required neck, back and knee surgeries, as they were fleeing the area. But Air Liquide maintained, and jurors heard, that what happened at the plant that day was actually an extremely loud steam release that caused no damage to the facility and triggered no contemporaneous injury reports from any of the contractors who filed suit.