John Stapleton, 19, died in 2002 when he backed his car into a natural gas wellhead that was unfenced and unprotected.  The wellhead exploded and John burned to death.  In 2006 a Santa Fe jury determined that the oil and gas company - Energen Resources Corporation - was negligent and it’s conduct was reckless in John’s death.

That determination was upheld by the state Court of Appeals.  The court rejected Energen’s contention that the award was excessive and therefore unconstitutional.

Energen “knew that there was a hazard of someone colliding with the wellhead, knew that if that happened serious bodily harm or death could result, knew that the well site was in a highly traveled area, knew that erecting a barricade or fence would prevent the hazard, and still chose not to barricade the well site,” the court said.

John’s family was awarded 1.9 million dollars in compensatory damages and 13 million in punitive damages.  Until the accident in 2002 Energen had taken no action to protect this wellhead nor about 1000 others it owns in the San Juan Basin.  The judges said this showed a reckless disregard for public safety and  the 13 million dollar punitive damages is appropriate to achieve the dual goals of punishment and deterrence in this case.”

The family of Cody Amezcua, 20, a second person killed in the explosion, settled its lawsuit before trial for an undisclosed amount.

This case looks to be all about whether the child was adequately watched. When you hand over your child to another for care such as this, the caregiver is many times subject to a higher level of scrutiny. We see this in many states with schools as well.

Timothy Burke was fine when his father dropped him off at the YMCA Childcare Center in Marblehead on the morning of June 9, 2005.

Even though his best buddy wasn’t there that day, Timothy, 3, happily played alone, filling a toy dump truck with mulch, pushing it across the yard and then emptying it. He ended up inside a playhouse built against the side of the Humphrey Street center.

No one’s sure what happened next, but about 15 minutes later, the little boy was found unconscious, face down against the back of the toy truck. Less than a week later, on June 15, his parents “reluctantly” made the decision to take him off life support.

Now his parents have filed a wrongful death suit against the Marblehead-Swampscott YMCA, six of its employees and Northshore Ambulance of Salem.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Salem Superior Court, three years to the day after Timothy’s death, alleges that both the YMCA and its employees and the ambulance company and its workers were negligent. The suit charges that day care center employees failed to watch the child and, when they found him unconscious, failed to provide proper emergency care. It also charges that the ambulance company was negligent by failing to properly train its employees or provide them with proper supplies to treat the child. The ambulance workers never used a defibrillator on the boy.