お知らせ • Feb 10
Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy Announces A Massive Verdict in Carson Hydrogen Sulfide Disaster Involving Liberty Property LP, Day to Day Imports Inc., Virgin Scent Inc., and Prologis, Inc
Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy announced on February 6, 2026 a Los Angeles jury returned a verdict in favor of twenty four residents of Carson, California who were exposed to toxic hydrogen sulfide gas for several months in the Fall of 2021. The residents were sickened by the “rotten egg” smell of the gas, which is known to cause headaches, nausea, and breathing problems. Carson is a working-class community in an industrial area. The Defendants denied responsibility for causing the odor, claimed the odor was an unforeseeable result of their conduct, and contended that the plaintiffs were not injured. The gas formed after a massive hand sanitizer fire at a Prologis Warehouse in Carson, California. The sanitizer was stockpiled outside the warehouse for more than six months by the warehouse tenants Day to Day Imports, Inc. and Virgin Scent, Inc., owned by the Nourollah family of Beverly Hills, California. The sanitizer was piled high on pallets, sometimes 10 or 15 feet high, over approximately two acres of yard outside the warehouse property throughout the hot summer months. Numerous citations had been issued by fire department officials prior to the fire. The chemical fire burned so hot that it took two days and 200 firefighters to extinguish. The chemicals, along with millions of gallons of firefighting water, entered the storm drain and ultimately the Dominguez Channel, which flows through the City of Carson. The chemicals formed Hydrogen Sulfide Gas in the Channel, that dispersed throughout the community wherever the wind blew. Thousands of odor complaints were logged with local government. The odor persisted for months, during which time residents were relocated from their homes and were provided air purifiers and hotel stays by the City of Carson and County of Los Angeles. The lawsuit alleging negligence and nuisance against the property manager (Prologis), the property owner (Liberty Property LP), and the tenants was filed in 2021. Defendants contended the odor was not a foreseeable result from the fire, among other things, and denied all responsibility. At trial, counsel for Defendants asked the jury to return a $0 verdict for compensatory and punitive damages. Trial began in November 2025 in Department 11 of the Los Angeles Superior Court in front of Judge David S. Cunningham III, and lasted 50 days, with 24 members of the Carson Community serving as the first set of Trial Plaintiffs from a case-wide population of more than 13,000 plaintiffs. Over 80 witnesses testified, including the Trial Plaintiffs, firefighters, County Flood Control personnel, and dozens of experts in wide ranging fields of science and medicine. The jury returned a verdict of $2,869,000.00 for compensatory damages to the 24 Trial Plaintiffs and another $6,000,000.00 for punitive damages for the malicious conduct of stockpiling the sanitizer and dumping it in the storm drain. The jury found the Landlord Defendants Prologis and Liberty to be 7% responsible. The case remains pending with 13,750 additional Plaintiffs awaiting their day in court. If all Plaintiffs received the same allocation, the total amount would exceed One Billion Dollars.