HARRISBURG Court tosses $60 million verdict in '94 PennDOT fire

The building suffered extensive damage in a 1994 fire and was later imploded.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- The state Supreme Court has thrown out a jury's verdict awarding $60 million to the state of Pennsylvania in a product liability case after a 1994 fire that heavily damaged the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation headquarters.
The decision means that Monsanto Co., which made the 12-story building's fire-retardant liquid PCBs, will get another chance to convince a jury that it was not liable and to argue the extent of any damages.
Lack of evidence
The ruling dated Thursday said there was a lack of evidence that the decision to tear down the building in the state Capitol complex was unavoidable.
"We will not eliminate the basic obligation on the part of those seeking to obtain compensation for property damage to establish that the repairs effectuated ... are fairly attributable to the defendant's conduct, product or instrumentality giving rise to the liability," Justice Thomas Saylor wrote.
The Transportation and Safety Building suffered extensive damage in a June 1994 fire and was imploded four years later. The nine-story Keystone Building, which houses various state agencies -- including PennDOT's executive offices -- was constructed in its place.
Poorly maintained
Monsanto's lawyers argued that the building was poorly maintained and that the state ignored requests to install required fire-suppression sprinklers.
Thomas M. Goutman, an attorney for Monsanto, on Friday called the decision "game, set and match," and predicted that the state will not be successful in any retrial.
"The uncontradicted evidence at trial was that even assuming that PCBs were there [before the fire] and had to be cleaned up, they can be cleaned up for a very nominal fund," he said.
He said the Supreme Court has barred holding Monsanto liable for unintended uses of its product, and that a fire is not an intended use.
The state replaced a structure "in a state of complete disrepair, with multiple code violations, with a beautiful new, state-of-the-art Taj Mahal, costing over $100 million," Goutman said.
Added damages
The trial in Commonwealth Court lasted 15 months and the August 2000 verdict was originally $90 million. The amount was later halved, but a judge added damages for the time that had passed since the lawsuit was filed.
Goutman said any verdict would have to be paid either by Monsanto Co. or by Solutia Inc., a company spun off by a former parent of Monsanto that had assumed its PCB liabilities. Both firms are based in St. Louis.
But because Solutia is in a bankruptcy proceeding, Monsanto is taking legal responsibility for the PCB litigation, Monsanto spokesman Glynn Young said.