It was a sunny afternoon, days before Christmas, in Palm Harbor, Florida. A woman pulled her convertible into a Circle K to get some fuel. She spotted an available pump, but she'd need to back up her vehicle for the fuel door to be on the right side. Little did she know, this particular Circle K gas station contained countless safety hazards. Unbeknownst to cars coming and going, there were layers of failures that invited any number of things to go wrong quickly. In a moment of hurry and human error, the driver pressed the accelerator instead of the brake, sending the rear of her car directly into the fuel pump. With no bollard on the left side of the pump, the vehicle slammed directly into the dispenser. On the other side of the stall stood a 46-year-old mother of five who had also stopped for gas after Christmas shopping. Her youngest two children were sitting in the vehicle. The pump toppled over onto the mother, pinning her between the dispenser and her car.
The fall trapped the mother against her SUV. Her two little ones in the car watched in horror as events went from bad to worse. Faulty safety mechanisms beneath the dispenser caused gallons of pressurized gasoline to spew from the underground fuel pumping system. In addition, sparks flew from exposed wiring that sheared during the impact. The two combined, creating an inferno that quickly enveloped the mother. In the chaos, the two children scrambled out of the vehicle. They were screaming, panicking, shocked.
The station clerk noticed the turmoil and ran outside to see what was happening. Her safety training kicked into motion. All gas stations must have emergency stop buttons that immediately shut off power to fuel dispensers. The clerk ran to the button and slammed her hand on it. Still, the fire grew. Confused, she called 9-1-1. Investigation into the case showed that the button panel had multiple identical emergency stop buttons that were poorly labeled.
While the clerk was on the phone with the dispatcher, one of the children ran into the station, yelling for help. Hanging up, the gas attendant grabbed fire extinguishers, taking one for herself and handing another to the child. They sprinted back outside and sprayed the fire, trying to put out the flames. Despite their best efforts, the blaze continued unabated, because the underground fuel pumps were still pumping gas towards the fuel pump, which was leaking from internal safety devices that had failed. The fire burned more intensely, leading to five explosions.
The clerk and the two children pressed on for over eight minutes until firefighters arrived. Tragically, the wife, mother, and beloved member of the Palm Harbor community burned to death.
In an instant, five children were left without a mother and a husband became a single father. In their shock, the family could barely comprehend what had happened. It was just too much. However, a few days later, one of the victim’s older children contacted the office of Rick Millian of Retamar & Millian, P.A by phone. They scheduled an appointment for the following day for Mr. Millian to meet with Mr. Caballes. A local to the Palm Harbor community, Rick was their ideal advocate both for his legal expertise as well as his understanding of the support the heartbroken family would need. Rick understood that attaining justice for the family would mean squaring up against a global publicly traded oil company and its affiliates. It would require tremendous legal resources, and Retamar & Millian was a smaller firm. Immediately, Rick knew who to bring on. He enlisted help from Ben Whitman, a partner at Clark, Fountain, Littky-Rubin & Whitman. Ben was all in. He and founding partner Don Fountain shared in Rick’s drive to support the heartbroken family. With Ben at the helm, the team also mobilized multiple paralegals to help. It took a village. Through their investigations, they uncovered a cascade of failures that led to the mother’s untimely death. It went much further than a missing bollard. Ben, Don, and Rick sought to ensure similar catastrophes never happened again — to anyone, anywhere — and to obtain as much justice for the family as possible.
Florida has a two-year statute of limitations for wrongful death cases. So, with the clock ticking, Ben and his team forged ahead in the investigation process. They examined the gas station's owners; they explored the parent company; they scrutinized the gas station designers, construction contractors, the equipment installation companies, the equipment maintenance and inspection entities, and more. Any company and individual that played a part was included in the case — and there were many.
As Ben, Don, and Rick pieced together what happened, they identified three distinct failures:
Ultimately, Ben and his team identified 20 Defendants. The scope was enormous, each contributing a unique layer of negligence and causation. It led to multiple separate lawsuits, dozens of depositions, and over $2 million in costs invested in the case for experts and travel. Ben devoted his entire practice to the case.
Faced with the tragedy and severity of the case, most of the Defendants were quick to settle. That is, all except for one: the main culprit, Circle K.
A multi-million-dollar company with an army of lawyers and insurance professionals, Circle K chose to fight every issue in the case. They spoliated evidence — for instance, the shear valve that malfunctioned. Gearing up for a trial, how would the Plaintiff's team get Circle K to budge?
To see how this story ends, check back on February 6, 2025 for Part 2 of this story.
