A woman driving a convertible backed into a Circle K gas pump in Palm Harbor, Florida, when she accidentally accelerated her vehicle when she meant to brake. Without the necessary bollards in place, the car hit the fuel pump. On the other side, a 46-year-old mother of five — refueling after Christmas shopping with two of her kids in the backseat — was pinned between the fallen dispenser and her car. Gallons of gas spewing from the ground sparked into flames from exposed wiring, her children looking on in horror. Gas continuously flowed due to a faulty dispenser while the station’s clerk rushed to push what was supposed to be the emergency stop (e-stop) button. A second e-stop button was pushed on the outside of the convenience store, but gas continued to pour.
The victim’s children and the station’s attendant grabbed fire extinguishers then ran to help the mother. After eight minutes of battling the flames, emergency services arrived on the scene. But by then, the victim tragically burned to death.
Soon after, a child of the deceased mother reached out to Rick Millian of Retamar & Millian, P.A. A local to Palm Harbor, Rick and his brother Marc Millian understood that attaining justice for the family would mean going against a huge oil company and its affiliates. They enlisted help from Ben Whitman and Don Fountain, partners at Clark, Fountain, Littky-Rubin & Whitman. The team of attorneys had a shared drive to support the family. But time was ticking.
Florida’s two-year statute of limitations for wrongful death cases meant the team had to quickly mobilize. Everyone from the gas station’s owner, its parent company, the gas station designers, the equipment installation companies, the equipment maintenance entities, and many more were scrutinized. In all, they identified three distinct failures. First, the gas pump was too exposed — reasoning that the accident would have been prevented with the appropriate bollards in place. Next, the pump’s shear valve did not fully seal, allowing gas to flow after an impact. Finally, the e-stop buttons were mislabeled and didn’t work properly.
In all, 20 Defendants were named, each contributing a unique layer of negligence and causation. This led to eight separate lawsuits, dozens of depositions, and over $2 million invested in the case for experts and travel. Faced with the tragedy and severity of the case, most of the Defendants quickly settled — all except for the main culprit: Circle K. The gasoline giant chose to evade responsibility through its numerous lawyers, destruction of evidence, and various stall tactics. With only one Defendant, the team focused their approach on Circle K’s negligence of not installing enough bollards, its failed maintenance on the shear valve, and its use of faulty e-stop buttons.
Ben reached out to DK Global in December 2023 to make their complex case simple for a jury. Leveraging over 70 hours of footage and case materials, the demonstrative they produced analyzed the gas station’s layout, maintenance history, and how the industry usually protects against similar impacts to pumps. Using surveillance footage and reconstructions, a 3D visualization of the mother at the pump demonstrated how the convertible crashed after its backward burst — trapping her in a deadly blaze.
The final third of the video showed how the incident could have been prevented by installing appropriate bollards. Additionally, the visuals showed three other Circle K gas stations nearby with proper safety measures, highlighting this location’s failure to meet safety protocols. Next, it revealed how the e-stop buttons failed to meet compliance standards and how some even violated Florida law. It also outlined a series of testimony statements regarding how this Circle K location never performed mandatory annual e-stop safety tests. Lastly, the video clarified how the shear valves failed to seal due to improper installation and maintenance. Overlaying an image of the burned and melted vehicle, the video notated that Circle K managers had thrown out the lower half of the three shear valves that had burned, along with the connective nuts, bolts, and washers, the two hoses, nozzles, and breakaways — all key physical evidence. The presentation ended with a series of portraits of a forever broken family.
Even with the demonstrative, Circle K remained unmoved. Before trial, the parties were required to participate in nonbinding arbitration. After the attorneys showed the presentation with a closing statement, the three-arbitrator panel returned a massive award for the Plaintiffs. The Defendants refused to accept the finding. At a pre-trial hearing, the Defense attempted to convince the judge that the two children who watched their mother die had no damages claims. The judge denied the motions. With no other way to delay litigation and mere days before jury selection, the Defense approached Ben, Don, Rick, and Marc to mediate. After years of misdirection and stalling, they offered an amount that would take care of the mother’s family. Ben, Don, Rick and Marc had succeeded in their mission to advocate for the traumatized, heartbroken family.
Rick Millian, a partner at Retamar & Millian, P.A., joined the firm in 2008. He works with clients who are suffering from injuries to recover compensation for their ailments due to negligence from others. He is admitted to practice across all Florida courts.
Marc Millian works alongside his brother at Retamar & Millian, P.A., and has over 29 years of trial experience. His areas of practice include personal injury, wrongful death, motor vehicle accidents, and premises liability.
Ben Whitman is a partner at Clark, Fountain, Littky-Rubin & Whitman, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He focuses on catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases caused by defective products, commercial trucking accidents, and other complex liability situations.
Don Fountain is a trial lawyer and founding partner at Clark, Fountain, Littky-Rubin & Whitman. He is a nationally recognized trial attorney specializing in catastrophic injuries and has over 35 years as a double board-certified civil trial lawyer.
