Domino Sugar Worker Dies From Factory Burns; Family Reaches Confidential Settlement Against Equipment Contractor

On a summer day in July 2000, Patricia A. Martin and a coworker were unclogging a strainer at the Domino Sugar refinery in Baltimore when approximately 2,500 gallons of superheated slurry erupted from the system. The mix of water, raw sugar, and calcium hydroxide burned nearly half her body. Martin, 36, died of her injuries the following month. It was the plant's first workplace fatality.

Domino Sugar was not named as a defendant because it had already paid out a workers' compensation claim. Attention instead fell on Maryland Mechanical Systems Inc., the Highlandtown contractor that had designed and installed the processing system roughly four years before the accident. Ronald Miller and Laura Zois filed a $10 million wrongful death and survival action on behalf of Martin's estate, represented by three of her six siblings: Mary Conner, Colleen Brown, and James Martin. A separate attorney represented Martin's daughter, Deanna, who was nine years old at the time of the suit.

Plaintiffs' counsel argued the system suffered from a defective design that allowed pressure to build and release without adequate safeguards. Maryland Mechanical's defense attributed the accident to human error, contending that Martin and her coworker had not followed established cleaning procedures. The dispute turned on whether the hazard was built into the equipment or the product of operator mistake.

Trial opened June 4, 2004, before Judge Thomas E. Noel in Baltimore City Circuit Court. After the plaintiff's case concluded, the parties reached a confidential settlement. The terms were not disclosed. No appeal followed.