Mobil Wins Court Round in 1988 Fire at Refinery : Safety: A Municipal Court judge dismissed some charges brought by city of Torrance, ruling that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has jurisdiction.

A Municipal Court judge Thursday threw out criminal charges filed against Mobil Oil Corp. and one of its contractors in connection with an August, 1988, fire at Mobil’s Torrance refinery, in which one worker was burned over 40% of his body and another was also injured.

The action, by South Bay Municipal Court Judge Thomas P. Allen Jr., could be reversed if the City of Torrance, which charged the companies with safety violations, challenges the ruling in the appellate division of Superior Court.

“This ends the case for now, but I will certainly appeal,” Torrance Prosecutor J. D. Lord said. “I am completely confident that the decision will be reversed.”

In an interview, Allen said he threw out the charges because the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has jurisdiction in the case. He said OSHA issued a citation in the accident before Torrance had filed its charges and is scheduled to hold a hearing soon to determine whether safety violations occurred.

“Once OSHA has jurisdiction, that’s it. Nobody else has jurisdiction,” Allen said. “I didn’t feel the city could go ahead and prosecute when the federal OSHA already had jurisdiction.”

Allen made the ruling on the second consecutive day in which he held hearings related to incidents at the Mobil refinery. In addition to Mobil, Cal Cat Chemical Co. was represented at a hearing Wednesday into the July, 1988, explosion at the refinery, and Irwin Industries was represented at the Thursday hearing about the fire that took place a month later in 1988.

The Aug. 5, 1988, fire at the Torrance refinery occurred when Ron Wagoner, the man who was burned, mistakenly opened a pipe containing flammable hydrocarbon liquids, which spewed onto hot pipes beneath it.

On Aug. 4, 1989, Torrance filed criminal misdemeanor charges against Mobil and Irwin Industries, the company that employed Wagoner. At the time of the explosion, Wagoner was part of an Irwin Industries pipe-fitting crew that was preparing to replace a number of valves.

Judge Allen’s ruling marks the second time he has thrown out criminal charges filed over accidents at the Mobil refinery. On Oct. 30, he dismissed most of the accusations against Mobil and two top refinery officials stemming from a deadly explosion at the facility on July 15, 1988.

Still remaining are misdemeanor charges that Mobil and a former executive of the company allegedly obstructed a Torrance Fire Department investigation of the July blast, which left one man dead and two others injured.

According to court documents, one Mobil employee at the explosion scene put his hand in front of a fire investigator’s camera and several others persuaded Mobil employees to stop talking to fire officials. On Wednesday, Mobil and former assistant refinery manager Tom Gregory pleaded not guilty to the obstruction charges.

“We don’t believe anything like that took place,” Max Gillam, an attorney representing Mobil in the case, said Thursday. “And secondly, if it had, it was very minor,” he added, asserting that the investigation was never seriously hampered.

Also entering not guilty pleas Wednesday were three managers of Cal Cat Chemical Co., which Mobil employed as a contractor to process sludge from storage tanks at the refinery. The company’s president, chief chemist and project manager face misdemeanor charges of willfully violating safety standards.

Cal Cat Chemical employees were processing sludge at the time of the explosion. City fire investigators concluded that the personnel had not followed proper safety procedures while performing the work.

In related action, Judge Allen ordered Wednesday that the cases against Mobil and Cal Cat Chemical be decided in separate trials.

In an interview Thursday, the judge said he ordered the severance of the two cases because the charges against the two companies were of an entirely different nature. He said he also agreed with Cal Cat Chemical’s argument that it might not get a fair hearing if it were to be tried alongside Mobil because of publicity about a string of mishaps at the refinery.

“It could affect Cal Cat Chemical’s ability to get a fair trial,” Allen said. “I live in the (South Bay) area and the publicity that has come out on Mobil’s activities has been extensive.”

Warren Ettinger, an attorney representing Cal Cat Chemical, said that he buttressed his argument to Allen with a pile of news stories: “I gave him (copies) of over 200 unfavorable articles regarding Mobil.”

Gillam said that, despite Allen’s ruling, Mobil has no immediate plans to try to shift its trial on obstruction charges to a community other than Torrance.