Texas Supreme Court says firms aren't liable for 2019 chemical plant explosion. (Port Neches: homes, bankruptcy)

[CastletonSnob1]

https://www.axios.com/2023/07/07/tex...lant-explosion

When a chemical plant in Port Neches, Texas, exploded on Thanksgiving eve in 2019, multiple people were injured, tens of thousands were evacuated from their homes and off-site property damage costs topped $150 million.

What's new: The plant's ultimate owners, private equity firms First Reserve and SK Capital Partners, will not be held liable, per a recent ruling by the Texas Supreme Court.

Why it matters: This was a failed attempt to pierce the corporate veil that private equity funds use to protect themselves from portfolio company misdeeds.

Had it succeeded in Texas, the second-largest state for private equity investment, it could have opened the floodgates for future litigation.
What to know: The Port Neches facility was owned by TPC Group, which was taken private for $850 million in 2012 by First Reserve and SKCP.

It mostly produced butadiene, a petrochemical used in the production of synthetic rubber.
An investigation by federal authorities determined that the blast was caused by the buildup of a “popcorn polymer” inside of a pipe, and that TPC failed to identity what it should have known was a possible problem.
TPC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last summer, in a prepackaged deal that included money to compensate thousands of plaintiffs in lawsuits that had been consolidated into a state multidistrict case. Prior to the bankruptcy filing, TPC had already paid out $134.5 million to settle explosion-related claims.

[detachable arm]

Everyone should be aware of the risks involved when living in that God-forsaken corner of the state.

[WRM20]

This is how owning a corporation works, and it's been like that for over 100 years. I am not sure why anyone thinks this case was different.