Who will be sued after Fort Worth hotel explosion? Lawyers say the list could be long.

The powerful explosion Monday at downtown Fort Worth’s Sandman Signature Hotel will likely trigger multiple lawsuits — from the nearly two dozen people injured, some seriously, to the property owners and businesses that sustained potentially millions of dollars in damage.

“Undoubtedly there will be litigation,” said Eric Hageman, the owner of the law firm Pritzker Hageman, a personal injury firm based in Minneapolis that specializes in fires and explosion cases.

The Star-Telegram spoke to four attorneys and legal experts, who all said that the coming months could bring a lot of lawsuits, although the targets of the litigation aren’t yet clear. Fort Worth Fire Department officials have said that the blast at the historic W.T. Waggoner Building appeared to be a gas explosion, but no definitive cause had been announced as of Wednesday afternoon.

The explosion, originating in the basement of the Sandman hotel on Houston Street, blew out much of the first two levels of the building, sending debris hundreds of feet and shattering windows across the street. The basement level was home to the Asian fusion restaurant Musume.

The restaurant had not yet opened for the day, so there were no diners in the restaurant, but a total of 21 people — including three restaurant workers and hotel employees — were injured. Of those, 14 were taken to hospitals, and at least three people remained there Wednesday.

With investigators still working on determining the cause, it’s unclear how any potential lawsuits will shape up and which parties may be held responsible.

“There’s a lot of possibilities still,” Hageman said.

Who’s liable?

Attorneys said that the first step is determining what caused the explosion.

“Once you get a better understanding of the preliminary investigation, it’s then identifying who could potentially be held liable,” said Ty Stimpson, a partner at the law firm Varghese Summersett, which is several blocks down the street from the Sandman hotel.

There’s a long list of parties that could potentially be sued, depending on the explosion’s cause:

• Gas supplier Atmos, particularly if there are leaks or other defects found on their lines.

• Hotel building owner Northland Properties, a Canadian developer, if there were leaks or defects on its portion of the gas lines.

• Any contractor hired to maintained the building’s portion of the lines, if there were leaks or defects found there.

• Manufacturers of appliances in the building, if any of those are at the root of the explosion.

• Companies that installed, serviced or maintained appliances in the building, if the appliances are implicated in the explosion.

• Contractors or construction companies involved in construction at the building, if the construction was a factor in the blast.

But even if Atmos, the natural gas supplier, isn’t found to be directly liable for the explosion, the company might find itself in court anyway, said Harry W. Sullivan Jr., a law professor at the Texas A&M School of Law.

“I’m sure somebody will sue Atmos, anyhow, because I mean, we live in a society today where everybody’s looking for somebody else,” he said.

Stimpson, the Fort Worth attorney, said that people filing lawsuits might also name Atmos in order to gain access to the company’s documents and reports.

Ryan Zehl, a Houston-based accident and injury lawyer, said that claims against Atmos would be strengthened by what he called “a history of natural gas explosions caused by leaks.”

Atmos has “one of the oldest, most antiquated pipelines in the country, over 800 miles of their pipelines are still made of steel and cast iron, and that is highly susceptible to corrosion,” he said. The company could face claims of negligence, gross negligence and possibly product liability, Zehl said.

A spokesperson for Atmos did not immediately respond to emailed questions about the materials of the pipes supplying the Sandman hotel.

Who might file lawsuits?

No matter which party is found to be responsible, Stimpson said, there will almost certainly be lawsuits filed against them. Some of those lawsuits will come from the 21 people who were injured.

“They’re innocent,” Stimpson said of the injured. “They’re going to work and they expect to be safe and out of harm’s way, so they would be individuals that would bring forth potential lawsuits against liable parties.”

And beyond the people injured, some of the companies involved might file their own litigation, too. For instance, the building owner could file a lawsuit against Atmos or against contractors or appliance manufacturers, if any of those are found to be responsible for the explosion.

Those other lawsuits, outside of the injury claims, could include property damages. Officials have not yet released an estimate of the property damage from the blast.

The Sandman hotel building and the property it sits on are valued at more than $32 million, according to the Tarrant Appraisal District. The renovation of the 1920 building from an office space to a hotel was estimated at $16 million, according to a 2019 city permit.

Lawsuits could start trickling in within a month after the blast’s cause is determined, attorneys said, although suits could continue to be filed up to two years after the date of the explosion.