Lawsuit against Garden Grove aerospace company alleges negligence in chemical storage

A Garden Grove couple who evacuated their home because of the threat posed by a malfunctioning tank containing a toxic chemical filed a federal lawsuit against aerospace company GKN Aerospace on Saturday, May 23, alleging “negligent storage, containment, handling, monitoring, and release of methyl methacrylate and related hazardous chemical vapors.”

Filippo Marchino is the founder and lead trial attorney of The X-Law Group. That firm, and the Presidio Law Firm, allege negligence, trespass and strict liability for ultrahazardous activity in the suit filed in U.S. District Court.

Husband and wife Duane Page and Michelle Carlisle “don’t have access to their home, they don’t have access to their things,” Marchino said.

What’s more, their home could lose value, he said.

“Say that tomorrow morning, someone is looking to buy a house in the evacuation area,” the attorney said. “Then there’s a house identical to yours outside the blast zone. Which one are people going to buy?”

Marchino said he has two degrees in aerospace engineering and has worked with toxic materials. He said companies that handle such substances should have “catastrophic redundancy” in their equipment.

“You need to have contingency plans,” Marchino said. “You can’t have a storage tank that includes highly volatile material that has a valve that gets gummed up,” as officials said they believe happened.

Marchino said he does not claim to know how to fix the problem. He said he is confident that fire officials will find a solution.

GKN officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the lawsuit on Sunday.

In a statement to the media about the crisis, the United Kingdom-based company said: “We are acutely aware of the uncertainty this incident is causing and sincerely apologise (sic) for the ongoing disruption to the local community.”