North Side house explosion survivors pull original lawsuit, refile new suit against CPS Energy
SAN ANTONIO – Two residents injured in a North Side house explosion have filed a new joint lawsuit against CPS Energy, days after pulling their original lawsuit.
Six days after the explosionMayte Terrie Reeves and Jose Ochoa first filed a lawsuit against the utility on April 27.
Their house was the second to blow up on April 21 alongside Preston Hollow Drive, which is positioned close to Thousand Oaks Drive. The San Antonio Fire Department mentioned the explosions had been seemingly associated to a pure gasoline buildup.
Two days after the April 27 submitting, courtroom data present Reeves and Ochoa nullified the suit and sought a special regulation agency to signify them.
The residents formally filed their new lawsuit on Tuesday afternoon, in accordance with paperwork obtained by KSAT Investigates. Lyons & Simmons, LLP, a Dallas-based regulation agency, now represents Reeves and Ochoa.
Lyons & Simmons, LLP is identical agency that took on the lawsuit of an East Side household injured in a 2021 house explosion. Last yr, a Bexar County jury ordered CPS Energy to pay the family $109 million in damages.
A CPS Energy spokesperson later mentioned the utility solely paid the East Side household $3 million.
‘Entirely preventable’
In the new lawsuit, filed in Bexar County’s 131st Civil District Court, attorneys representing Reeves and Ochoa mentioned they had been of their house within the 15000 block of Preston Hollow Drive when one other house exploded two homes down the road from them.
After the primary explosion, the residents evacuated their house because of “the risk of escaped natural gas in the area” earlier than they “were told it was safe to return home,” the lawsuit states.
Reeves and Ochoa returned to their house. Approximately two-and-a-half hours after the primary house explosion, the Reeves and Ochoa house exploded and burst into flames because of a “natural gas leaking from CPS Energy’s gas distribution pipeline,” in accordance with the lawsuit.
Their attorneys declare the explosion at their house was “entirely preventable.”
“Though Plaintiffs (Reeves and Ochoa) survived, the Explosion and resulting fire left them catastrophically injured and permanently scarred,” the suit alleges. “They face a long, painful road ahead and their lives have been irreparably altered.”
As a results of the explosion, the victims are requesting a jury trial and are looking for $1 million every in damages.
Lawyers are additionally accusing CPS Energy of being negligent by “failing to hire, equip, and train competent and skilled workers” to securely function its pure gasoline system across the house.
“CPS Energy had current, subjective awareness of the risk but proceeded with a conscious indifference to the rights, safety, or welfare of others,” the lawsuit states. “CPS Energy’s conduct, acts, and/or omissions, singularly or in combination with others, constituted gross negligence which proximately caused the Explosion and Plaintiffs’ injuries and damages.”
As of Tuesday, Reeves and Ochoa stay hospitalized at Brooke Army Medical Center.
Yet one other CPS Energy lawsuit
Tuesday’s lawsuit is the second filed against CPS Energy in as many days.
In the separate suit, filed on May 4, a San Antonio-area couple is suing the utility and two electrical equipment companies after a transformer explosion broken their house and critically injured each earlier this yr.
Johnny and Irene Sanchez, much like Reeves and Ochoa, are looking for greater than $1 million in damages from CPS Energy, KBS Electrical Distributors Inc., and JSHP Transformer USA Corporation.
The explosion occurred on Feb. 8 at their house within the 1000 block of Fillmore Drive in far west Bexar County, in accordance with their lawsuit.
