PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 23, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Citing hazardous materials mismanagement at the SPS Technologies-Jenkintown aerospace parts manufacturing plant, attorneys at Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky and Stranch, Jennings & Garvey have jointly filed the first class-action lawsuit on behalf of those impacted by Monday night’s ferocious four-alarm fire and explosion at the sprawling site in Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Class-action litigators Patrick Howard and Robert J. Mongeluzzi (Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky) along attorneys with J. Gerard Stranch IV and Andrew E. Mize (Stranch, Jennings & Garvey) are leading the co-counsel team of highly experienced lawyers and forensic investigators in the search for answers and accountability following the allegedly foreseeable and preventable catastrophe that triggered panic, evacuations, environmental alerts, and widespread school and business closures.
Following the filing (M. Jones, Wyncote, PA, individually, and on behalf of prospective class members v. SPS Technologies, LLC d/b/a PCC Fasteners – SPS Jenkintown, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Case ID: 250202834), the firms, that have worked together numerous cases (including the national opioid litigation) over the past 15 years, have begun the process of notifying defendant SPS, along with local, state and federal agencies, of their role, and that they aim to obtain class certification under Pennsylvania law.
“The fire and explosion was caused by defendant’s failures to inspect, properly maintain, and/or operate its facility, including the location of the origin of the fire,” according to the filing. It also states that SPS “failed to uphold industry standards” in facility operations and as a result “hundreds if not thousands of persons have been damaged.” The Complaint, whose lead plaintiff is a local resident and school bus operator for one of the school districts that was forced to close due to the incident – seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for the plaintiffs, whose injuries are economic and non-economic, including but not limited to emotional distress.
The lawyers added, “We will be conducting, in concert with governmental entities, a comprehensive inquiry under the rules of legal discovery and fully expect all relevant SPS records, including hazardous materials maintenance and management files, fire suppression system operating logs, along with other related system safety documentation – including personnel training and supervision reports – to be preserved and produced without alteration or delay.”
“We join all those who have commended the work of the army of first responders, from near and far, who battled, and continue to fight, the chemical blaze over days, and whose health and welfare is of paramount concern. And we are thankful there was no loss of life. While it is too soon to fully ascertain the root cause of this disaster, or on present or future environmental and health impacts, it is not too soon to assert, as outlined in the Complaint, there were numerous operational failures and that a well-managed and maintained manufacturing facility doesn’t just catch fire, explode, then burn uncontrollably.”
About Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky
The Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky nationally recognized team of catastrophic explosion and industrial site-safety attorneys has represented victims and their loved ones in numerous mass-casualty – often fatal – incidents in Pennsylvania and around the country. In recent years, its clients include: victims of the Palmer Candy Factory, Reading, PA, 2023 mass-casualty fire-explosion; several former Port Richmond residents – one of whom died – when their homes were leveled in a massive gas explosion on New Year’s Day 2023; families of the victims of the 2022 Pottstown residential gas explosion and the lethal 2019 blast that leveled five row houses in Philadelphia. The firm has also represented several victims of industrial plant explosions, steel mill explosions, nursing home fires, and obtained a $70 million settlement resulting from a Philadelphia food truck explosion. Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky has also obtained a $1.2 billion settlement in the Miami Condominium collapse and a $227 million recovery in the Philadelphia Salvation Army building collapse.
About Stranch, Jennings & Garvey (SJ&G)
Headquartered in Nashville, SJ&G is a leading national plaintiff’s injury firm with an exemplary record of successfully litigating significant class action, mass tort, and other highly complex, high-profile, high-impact matters in state and federal courts. Mr. Stranch served as lead trial attorney in the Sullivan Baby Doe case (originally filed as Staubus v. Purdue) against U.S. opioid producers Endo Health Solutions Inc. and Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., resulting in a $35 million settlement agreement, the largest per capita settlement achieved by any prosecution with Endo to date, and was a co-lead counsel in the Volkswagen “Clean Diesel” Products Liability Litigation that resulted in settlements totaling nearly $17 billion.
Coverage Note: Above photos are included in the Complaint. Plaintiff Jones is refraining from press interviews at this time; her legal team is, however, available and can be directly contacted (see below).
Contacts:
Robert J. Mongeluzzi / rmongeluzzi@smbb.com / 215-850-6571
Patrick Howard / phoward@smbb.com / 215-575-3895
J. Gerard Stranch IV / gstranch@stranchlaw.com / 615.254.8801
Steph Rosenfeld / steph@idadvisors.com / 215-514-4101
Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/155c43fc-d11e-42a8-a1b7-1953953435b7
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6c0a10e1-f292-4501-8ae7-770b4477d99e
