Friday, March 19, 1999
Chemist's family sues over death
BY KRISTINA GOETZ
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NEWPORT — The family of a Dayton, Ky., chemist killed in October at Dravo Corp.'s Pendleton County limestone plant has filed suit in Pendleton Circuit Court.
Family members and their attorneys said they intend to challenge the fairness of Kentucky's workers' compensation law, which doesn't allow them to sue if they collect benefits, and then sets a nearly impossible standard for collecting damages.
After waiving their right to workers' compensation benefits, in this case about $25,000, in order to sue, Jeannine and Tony Sanzere of Newport are suing the Dravo Lime Co., Dravo Corp. and the two companies that recently acquired Dravo Corp. in a joint venture.
They are Carmeuse North America, a Belgian-based company that owns 60 percent of Dravo, and Lafarge, a corporation active in 65 countries, which controls 40 percent.
The couple allege that Dravo deliberately intended to kill their son. The parents of Michael Sanzere allege Dravo did not repair a faulty bin, did not provide a safe working environment and acted “malicious ly” and with “extreme indifference to human life.”
The suit argues that the state's workers' compensation law should be declared unconstitutional.
Jim Arnold of Crescent Springs, one of the Sanzeres' attorneys, said the law treats Kentucky employees differently than Kentucky non-employees.
Mr. Sanzere, 45, was killed at the company's Black River plant while working in a small building under a bin where limestone was stored. The floor of the bin, apparently weakened by rust, gave way and 500 tons of limestone gravel fell on the building, crushing him.
The suit alleges that Dravo's vice president of operations at the Black River Plant and the safety manager and maintenance superintendent deliberately intended to injure or kill Mr. Sanzere.
“"We fully expect for our case to be dismissed at the trial court level based on existing Kentucky law,” said Jan Kreutzer of Florence, another of the Sanzeres' attorneys. “But we have the Sanzeres' support to take this as far as possible in the appellate court system to try to get the law changed.”
“There's going to be probably a year of discovery and then we're probably going to be thrown out at the trial court level. So these people are prepared to go five to seven years down the road.”
Carl A. Gilbert, president of Dravo Lime Co., acknowledged that he received a copy of the suit, but did not want to comment on any specifics.
“We share the Sanzere family's grief in the aftermath of last October's tragic event,” he said in a statement. “The regret we feel hav ing lost this valued employee motivated our participation in the discussions that have taken place to date with the Sanzere family.”
In Kentucky, the Sanzeres will have to meet a nearly impossible standard to win the unspecified damages they seek.
Family members of a dead employee are not allowed to sue a company in civil court in Kentucky under the workers' compensation law unless they can prove the action falls under the state's intentional tort exception. Under that exception, the family must essentially prove the company intended to kill the employee.
But the Sanzeres say the facts of their case should fit the law, and they plan to go as far in court as it takes.
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