Waco, Texas—Judge Jim Meyer of Waco’s 170th District Court has ordered the owner of West Fertilizer Co. to turn over phone records to the other defendants in the multi-party litigation stemming from the April 2013 ammonium nitrate blast in West, Texas. According to the Waco Tribune-Herald, Meyer issued a ruling on Sept. 22 that Adair Grain Co. must surrender phone records to defendants CF Industries, El Dorado Chemical Co., Thermaclime Inc., and International Chemical Co. (InterChem), who are suggesting Adair may have started the fire intentionally because of financial troubles. The third trial in the case is now scheduled for Jan. 9, 2017, after defense attorneys argued for a delay following the May 11 (GM May 13, p. 1) announcement by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that the cause of the fire that triggered the blast was “incendiary” and “a criminal act.” Out-of-court settlements were reached in the first West trial in October 2015 (GM Oct. 19, 2015), and again in the second trial in late January 2016. The total list of plaintiffs in the complex litigation originally numbered about 200 and included the families of firefighters killed in the blast, residents who sustained injuries, property and business owners who suffered damages, and insurance companies who have filed subrogation claims seeking to recoup funds they have paid out. Attorneys for Adair argued that the business was in good financial shape and there was no good-faith basis for the phone records request, but litigators for the fertilizer companies claimed Adair had inadequate assets to secure loans and was informed by bankers less than a week before the fire that it was to be audited. Adair is also named as a defendant in the case, and had earlier filed a counterclaim (GM May 19, 2014) seeking damages from the other fertilizer company defendants, but reportedly withdrew that claim in September.
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