JURY AWARDS SIKESTON MAN $4 MILLION

BENTON -- A Scott County jury on Friday awarded $4 million to a Sikeston man who was badly burned from a furnace explosion at an aluminum recycling plant

Lawyers for the injured man said the verdict is believed to be the second largest ever in a civil case in circuit court in Southeast Missouri.

Ernest Bland, 35, was working at Marnor Aluminum Recycling in Miner when a furnace used to melt down and recycle aluminum exploded on Jan. 12, 1997. Bland was the only worker injured. He suffered third-degree burns over a third of his body. As a result of the accident, he has restricted motion in his left arm.

Bland was represented by Cape Girardeau lawyers Mike Ponder, Kathy Wolz and Don Thomasson. Bland's personal lawyer, John Harding of Cape Girardeau, also assisted.

Defendants were Imco Recycling Inc. and Metal Mark Inc. Imco, based in Dallas, Texas, is the parent company of the Sikeston aluminum recycling plant and Metal Mark the Chicago firm that designed the furnace.

Sikeston lawyer King Sidwell, the lead attorney for the defense, said the case would be appealed to the Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District in Springfield. Sidwell declined to comment on the jury's verdict.

Bland's lawsuit charged that the equipment was unsafe because there were no doors or shields on the mouth of the furnace. The suit accused Imco of negligence in supplying an unsafe furnace and Mark Metal of negligence in designing the equipment.

"I think the message that the aluminum recycling industry ought to get is that they need to consider that their employees' safety comes first rather than maximizing corporate profits," said Ponder.

"The aluminum recycling industry has known for years that furnace explosions were a major risk and a major hazard in the industry, and yet Metal Mark designed the furnace without shields or doors," he said.

Ponder said the Sikeston plant continues to operate without shields or doors on its furnace.

Wolz said Bland's burns were so severe that he initially had to be covered in gauze from head to toe.

"The jury could see that our client was genuinely hurt," said Wolz. "They thought that was the right thing to do," she said of the verdict.

The defense had recommended the jury award $275,000. "One juror told us that was a joke," Ponder said.

The defense offered to settle the case for $1.5 million, Ponder said. The settlement offer was made and rejected before closing arguments in the three-day trial.

Bland went back to work for Marnor Aluminum as a janitor in October 1997.