64D05-1411-CT-9781 (Indiana, Porter County)
At a steel production facility, a control panel that controlled the operation of a stacking device failed, causing damages approaching $50 million. Due to the number of companies working on the site and interacting with the machinery, the case spent significant time in discovery across many parties. During the discovery process, a contractor that once worked on the control panel was brought in, on a negligence theory as well as a claim that the contractor breached implied contracts resulting in the damages. Costello Legal partners Dan Costello and James Barrow picked up the defense of the company.
Costello Legal filed a motion on behalf of the contractor alleging that they could not be held responsible in any way for the accident. The motion argued that the damages incurred fell outside the scope of work performed by the contractor, that there was no causational link between the contractor’s work and the damage that resulted, and based on the work actually performed by the contractor, there existed no “implied contracts” between the contractor and the facility that were breached in any way. The judge agreed, granting the motion, fully dismissing the contractor from the suit and allowing the contractor to avoid a potentially lengthy and expensive trial.
