$400,000.00 settlement

$400,000.00 settlement against the designer of a chemical manufacturing system that was not equipped with a check-valve to prevent noxious fumes from entering a tank that workers entered periodically to clean. The poorly engineered system allowed fumes to enter the tank and displace the oxygen, causing death. The designer that engineered the system claimed that the worker should not have entered the tank without a self-contained breathing apparatus since the worker had been trained by the employer not to enter the tank without a self-contained breathing apparatus due to the risk of oxygen displacement.