HOUSTON — Several residents in northwest Houston will begin to receive settlement payments more than four years after a fatal industrial incident.
On Jan. 24, 2020, a gas-fueled explosion at Watson Grinding and Manufacturing killed two employees and damaged hundreds of homes. A third person who lived nearby later died from injuries sustained during the blast.
In the wake of the explosion, homeowners filed lawsuits against Watson Grinding.
Attorney Rob Kwok told KHOU 11 that more than 1,000 residents turned to his law firm Kwok Daniel LLP looking for answers.
“They were doing nothing wrong, just sleeping in the beds, then this explosion happens and it destroys their neighborhood,” he said. “I have clients who had their homes collapse on them which resulted in major injuries, some of these clients have had major surgeries.”
Kwok said a lengthy legal battle ensued after Watson Griding filed for bankruptcy. Eventually, over 100 lawyers joined the lawsuit with over 2,200 total claimants.
After navigating the lawsuit out of bankruptcy court and back to state court, Kwok said most of the parties reached a settlement "in principle" in 2022. After that, mediators established a process for allocating the settlement – plaintiffs were able to decide if they wanted to accept of reject the offer they were given.
Finally, on Thursday, attorneys started to distribute payments to homeowners impacted by the explosion.
“These folks can take a significant sum of money at this point and start rebuilding their homes. That has always been our goal,” Kwok said.
The settlement includes a $52 million dollar insurance payout from Watson Grinding and Watson Valves and a greater undisclosed amount from several other companies.
Frank Peters said he was thankful for the hard work that went into settlement.
“Today, is better, people are finally getting some peace,” he said. “My home was destroyed; it went off the foundation. Nothing was promised. You don’t know if they have money, if they can rebuild, or repay what they did. But our lawyers kept working.”
Jeff Creel, president of the Courtyard Westway Homeowners Association, said many of his neighbors were still in the process of rebuilding.
“There are still homes that are boarded up, some homes with catastrophic looking damage to them,” he said. “It [the settlement] took a little longer than I thought, but the day has finally arrived, so I’m glad it’s here. People needed this.”
Kwok told KHOU 11 that his firm has filed lawsuits against two additional companies, 3M and Teledyne/Detcon. Trial is set against them in January 2025.