McWane Inc. sued in wrongful death case at New Jersey foundry

McWane Inc., a pipe manufacturer convicted of covering up details of a worker's death at a New Jersey plant, was sued over the accidental death of another employee killed at the same foundry.

Thomas Lawlor, 41, died at McWane's Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Co. in Phillipsburg, N.J., on Jan. 20, 2005, when a 700-pound pipe rolled onto his chest, his mother charged in a wrongful-death complaint. The pipe rolled from an elevated platform known as a test deck when a safety device failed, her complaint said.

"Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Company and McWane Inc., in an effort to increase the company's production, efficiency and profitability, routinely overloaded the test decks with pipes, causing the safety devices to be disabled," the complaint said. The case, filed in state court last month, was transferred Dec. 13 to federal court in Trenton, N.J..

McWane companies have been convicted five times in two years of crimes in Alabama, Utah, Texas and New Jersey. Atlantic States and four managers were convicted April 26 in federal court in Trenton of conspiring to violate environmental and worker safety laws and of hiding facts from investigators about a worker death in a forklift accident in 2000.

McWane, based in Birmingham, Ala., is a leading manufacturer of cast iron sewer and water pipe.

Spokeswoman Michelle McNamee said that Lawlor's "tragic and unfortunate death due to an industrial accident" was thoroughly investigated by the company, local police and the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

"The company fully cooperated with the public authorities granting full access to all information requested and the agencies determined that Mr. Lawlor's death was an accident," McNamee said. "The company is completely confident that all steps taken by it related to the Lawlor fatality were appropriate."

Robert Kulick, area director for the OSHA office in Avenel, N.J., did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The lawsuit was initially filed Nov. 6 in state Superior Court in Warren County, N.J. McWane had it transferred last week to federal court.

The complaint, filed by Florence Fermaintt on behalf of Lawlor's estate, accuses McWane of negligence and wrongful death. It seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Lawlor lived in Whitehall, Pa.

An entry in the court docket Thursday shows that U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano referred the case to arbitration.