Judge Consolidates Suits from Firefighter Deaths

GREGG COUNTY — A half-dozen lawsuits arising from the January 2009 deaths of two Kilgore firefighters were consolidated in Gregg County civil court Tuesday. Attorneys for the distributor of the fire engine ladder from which Cory Galloway and Kyle Perkins fell to their deaths filed the motion Thursday to consolidate the six lawsuits against it and the ladder manufacturer, both Florida-based companies.

This past week, 124th District Judge Alfonso Charles granted the motion in parts. Charles consolidated Galloway�s suit with suits from three injured firefighters for all purposes including trial. Perkins� and Galloway�s suits will be combined for evidence discovery and pre-trial motions but not for trial, and the same goes for the city of Kilgore�s lawsuit against the manufacturer and distributor. All six cases have been transferred to the 124th District Court for judicial economy, Charles wrote in his ruling Tuesday.

Since June 17, widows for Galloway and Perkins, along with injured firefighters Robert King, James Sanders and Gary Tyson, each sued E-One Inc. and Hall-Mark Fire Apparatus of Texas over the Jan. 25, 2009 incident. Galloway�s widow, Regina Galloway, is also suing the city of Kilgore, while the city is suing E-One and Hall-Mark through its participation in the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool, records showed.

E-One manufactured the 95-foot mid-mount aerial platform truck, known as Kilgore Fire Department�s Ladder-1, according to the suit filed by Galloway�s widow. Hall-Mark sold Ladder-1 to the city, records show. According to Hall-Mark�s motion, Galloway and Perkins were ejected from the bucket of Ladder-1, while operator Sanders was trying to remove and lower the bucket on the parapet wall of the building. King was inside the bucket with Galloway and Perkins. Tyson sustained injuries, he said, while assisting the two deceased firefighters immediately following their fall.