California Court of Appeal

In plaintiffs suit against a gas company for sustaining serious injuries when accumulated natural gas exploded while attempting to light a water heater, jury verdict in favor of the plaintiffs in awarding each plaintiff in excess of $1 million in compensatory damages and finding that the gas company acted with malice in awarding each plaintiff $5 million in punitive damages are reversed as there was no evidence that, had the gas company issued a warning, either plaintiffs would have been aware of it, and the lack of evidence that the gas company's failure to issue a warning was the cause of the accident precludes recovery by the plaintiffs.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/07/2010
• Published 10/07/2010

Judges

• CORNELL

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• David M. Axelrad, Ken M. Fitzgerald