Hennigan v. Atlantic Refining Company
| Decision Date | 10 September 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 17017-17019.,17017-17019. |
| Citation | 400 F.2d 857 |
| Parties | Ellen HENNIGAN, Administratrix of the Estate of James C. Hennigan, Deceased, v. ATLANTIC REFINING COMPANY and City of Philadelphia v. DRISCOLL CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, Inc. and Gulf Oil Corporation, City of Philadelphia, Appellant. Roger A. JOHNSON, Administrator of the Estate of Robert C. Wilson, Deceased, v. ATLANTIC REFINING COMPANY and City of Philadelphia v. DRISCOLL CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, Inc. and Gulf Oil Corporation, City of Philadelphia, Appellant. Bonnie RIDDICK, Administratrix of the Estate of John Riddick, Deceased, v. ATLANTIC REFINING COMPANY and City of Philadelphia v. DRISCOLL CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, Inc. and Gulf Oil Corporation, City of Philadelphia, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Joseph J. Murphy, Murphy, Veldorale & Weisbord, Philadelphia, Pa. (Vincent C. Veldorale, Philadelphia, Pa., on the brief), for appellant, City of Philadelphia.
Sheldon L. Albert, Beasley, Albert, Hewson & Casey, Philadelphia, Pa. (James E. Beasley, John J. Cahill, Jr., Cahill, Cahill & Lynch, Philadelphia, Pa., on the brief), for appellees, Hennigan and Johnson.
William L. Meritz, Zarwin, Prince, Baum, Steerman & Somerson, Philadelphia, Pa., for appellee, Bonnie Riddick.
Before McLAUGHLIN, FREEDMAN and SEITZ, Circuit Judges.
On August 22, 1962, four employees of Driscoll Construction Company were killed in an explosion while working on the construction of a sewer tunnel in the City of Philadelphia. The explosion apparently resulted from the ignition of petroleum vapors which had accumulated in the tunnel.
The personal representatives of three of the decedents brought diversity actions in the district court under Pennsylvania's wrongful death and survival statutes1 against Atlantic Refining Company and the City of Philadelphia. Atlantic and the City filed cross claims against each other, and Atlantic filed third-party complaints against Driscoll.2 The third-party complaints were dismissed by stipulation, and the cases against Atlantic and the City were submitted to a jury on special interrogatories. The jury found that the City had been negligent and had acted with reckless disregard for the safety of others, that its negligence was the proximate cause of the explosion, that Atlantic was not negligent, and that the decedents had not been contributorily negligent and had not assumed the risk of the type of accident which caused their deaths. The jury awarded plaintiffs compensatory and punitive damages against the City. The court entered judgment against the City and denied the cross claims of both the City and Atlantic. The City has appealed.
The sewer construction project was located under a street adjacent to the petroleum storage facilities of Atlantic. The Water Department of...
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