RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas–In one of the largest workplace wrongful death verdicts in U.S. history, a Starr County, Texas jury awarded more than $1.6 billion to the families of two workers killed in an explosion at a hazardous-chemicals plant in 2023, The Ammons Law Firm said today.
The verdict was entered against Upton Assets, LLC, the owner of the Pecos Liquids Handling Facility in Pecos, Texas, where an explosion on October 7, 2023, killed two workers from the Rio Grande Valley — Reinaldo Garcia Pena and Angel Alaffa. The Facility receives, stores, processes, and transfers highly flammable natural gas liquids and condensate from oil and gas fields throughout the Permian Basin and Reeves County.
The verdict is also believed to be the largest Texas verdict arising from a workplace fatality, placing it among the most significant civil jury verdicts ever returned in the state, lead counsel Rob Ammons said.
The verdict was reached late Friday after a two-week trial before Judge Jose Luis Garza in the 381st Judicial District Court. All twelve jurors agreed on every answer. The jury assigned 100 percent of the responsibility for both deaths to Upton Assets, LLC. The jury also found unanimously that Upton Assets, LLC’s conduct constituted gross negligence with respect to both men. No fault was assigned to any of the three settling defendants or to any other party.
Reinaldo Garcia Pena, 57, was a devoted husband and father, according to trial evidence. He and his wife had been married for 37 years. He left behind two daughters and died months before learning he was going to become a grandfather for the first time. Angel Alaffa, 30, was a husband, a father to a young daughter, and a son. Both men had traveled hundreds of miles from their homes in the Rio Grande Valley to work at Upton Assets, LLC’s facility in Pecos.
Upton Assets, LLC’s Pecos Liquids Handling Facility is a Process Safety Management (PSM) facility, a federal designation imposed on facilities that handle highly hazardous chemicals and that carries mandatory requirements for trained personnel, documented safety procedures, hot work permits, and rigorous contractor oversight. The evidence at trial established that Upton Assets, LLC, the facility’s owner, had implemented none of these measures when the explosion occurred.
Trial evidence showed that Thomas Oliver Hanks, Jr., president of Upton Assets, LLC, admitted under oath that he had never read the federal safety standards governing his own facility, and could not identify a single employee who had. The evidence at trial established that Upton Assets, LLC, bypassed formal bids from established companies and instead hired a crew of eight workers from the Rio Grande Valley without conducting any due diligence into their qualifications. Those workers were never provided Upton Assets, LLC’s own safety manual, never received a safety orientation or any training from the plant, and were sent to weld on a tank containing flammable hydrocarbons armed with a gas monitor that was incapable of detecting the very vapors that would cause the explosion. The evidence at trial also showed that the plant manager of Upton Assets, LLC, the highest-ranking authority on site, had no college degree, no PSM certifications, and had never completed a single OSHA PSM course. By the end of cross-examination, Upton Assets, LLC’s own expert was forced to concede that what occurred at the Pecos facility was not an accident; it was, in his words, a “systemic failure of safety.”
The case is Elizabeth Garcia, et al., v. Estate of Angel Alaffa, Axis Transport, LLC, Upton Assets, LLC, Salazar Service & Trucking Corp., and Thomas O. Hanks, Cause No. DC-23-465, in the 381st District Court of Starr County, Texas.
Lead attorney Rob Ammons, The Ammons Law Firm: “Oil and gas companies that cannot follow basic safety rules have no business operating in the State of Texas. Upton Assets spent two and a half years telling these families that Reinaldo Garcia and other parties were to blame. This jury, after hearing all of the evidence, rejected that argument completely and held Upton Assets fully accountable. The jury spoke with one voice: This was entirely Upton Assets’ fault, and it wasn’t a mistake —it was a serious, knowing disregard for safety.”
Heriberto “Herbie” Montalvo, The Ammons Law Firm: “Reinaldo Garcia Pena was the heart of his family. Since October 7, 2023, Reinaldo’s family has had to navigate life without him — a loss no family should have to endure, and one that never had to happen. Every safety failure that led to the explosion was preventable. This jury understood that, and their verdict reflects it.”
The combined verdict, with compensatory and punitive damages for both families, exceeds $1.6 billion, as follows:
For the family of Reinaldo Garcia Pena: The jury awarded $101.5 million in compensatory damages to his widow; $50.75 million to his daughter; and $50.75 million to his daughter, totaling $203 million in compensatory damages for the Garcia family. The jury also awarded $609 million in punitive damages to the Garcia family, apportioned between his widow and daughters.
For the family of Angel Alaffa: The jury awarded compensatory damages to his widow, to his minor daughter, and to his parents, totaling more than $200 million in compensatory damages for the Alaffa family. The jury also awarded $609 million in punitive damages to the Alaffa family, apportioned equally between his widow and minor daughter.
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The Ammons Law Firm has a nationwide personal injury practice focusing on tire defects, truck accidents, rollovers, consumer protection and product liability, catastrophic injury, wrongful death, post-collision fires, seatbelt defects, airbag defects, and plant explosions.
