(WSIL) -- Seven former employees injured and loved ones of three killed while working the overnight shift at the Mayfield candle factory during the tornadoes one year ago have filed a "mass action" lawsuit.Ìý
The lawsuit alleges Mayfield Consumer Products and Supervisor Justin Bobbitt are liable.Ìý
Estates of Ivan Ramirez Lopes, Jill Monroe and Kayla Marie Smith are among those who have come forward alleging false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violation of Kentucky statutory law.Ìý
The lawsuit mirrors the one filed by eight other living former co-employees who had already sued MCP in March 2022. That class action suit is pending in Federal Court in Paducah.
The 8 plaintiffs from the class action lawsuit are also named in the new mass action lawsuit, bringing the total number of plaintiffs to 18.
“These folks are still hurting, there’s been no resolution for them, and now collection agency action is involved â€� at Christmas,â€� said Attorney William Nefzger. “It’s time to go into overdrive, and so here we are, filing this mass action for total accountability.â€Ì�
MORE:ÌýCandle factory survivors file federal charge against employer
All three plaintiffs� lawyers visited with survivors in Mayfield and Hopkinsville on Friday November 18, including several plaintiffs Attorney Amos Jones confirmed were being targeted by an Indiana-based debt collector for tornado-injury medical bills that MCP and its insurers have not paid.
The lawsuit alleges, among other charges, that:
- MCP Attorney Edmund Sauer in a published statement to National Public Radio dated November 19 â€�(1) admitted that MCP workers were ordered not to leave that night, (2) attributed the decisions to company policy, and (3) cited ‘federal and state lawâ€� as requiring what he called the ‘shelter in placeâ€� policy MCP now abruptly and contradictorily claims it was carrying out.â€Ì�
- “Sauer averred […] ‘that MCP complied with federal and state law, which requires employers to ensure that employees shelter in place during hazardous weather events. Anyone who has seen the cars on MCP’s roof following the tornado can only imagine how many people would have died if MCP’s brave supervisors on duty that night had not complied with the law.� �
- “The published Sauer MCP ‘Statement to the Media� of November 19, 2022, clarifies the long-running cover-up MCP orchestrated in December 2021 that has unraveled over the 11 months since that effort started collapsing out of the gate, by which Defendant MCP has sought to discredit a chief witness who organized workers to mobilize for truth, including to avenge the wrongful deaths of their colleagues.�
“MCP and its henchmen need to stop trying to beat down Mr. Johnson,� Jones said Thursday after the mass action lawsuit was filed. “Here stands a brave, young leader who is honestly fighting for fellow-Kentuckian laborers against what he knows to be inexcusable labor practices and a treacherous cover-up.�
MORE:ÌýMayfield Consumer Products fined $40,000, issued 7 violations by OSHA
