Survivors of Kentucky candle factory destroyed by tornado sue company, allege 'flagrant indifference'

MAYFIELD, Ky. — Several survivors of the Mayfield, Kentucky candle factory tornado collapse have filed the first lawsuit against the company since the deadly storm, alleging that Mayfield Consumer Products showed a "flagrant indifference" to workers' safety the night of the tornado.

Elijah Johnson, one of the 110 workers in the facility at 112 Industrial Drive when it fell Friday night, and "on behalf of others similarly situated" filed the lawsuit against Mayfield Consumer Products in Graves Circuit Court Wednesday evening.

The survivors are being represented by attorneys Amos Jones and William Davis, who have requested that a judge certify class-action status for the survivors of the collapse. The company has said that 102 workers survived the incident and eight died, and the state is working to verify that information.

"There were so many survivors coming forward that the class action was the most responsible approach," Jones wrote in an email to The Courier Journal.

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In the lawsuit, plaintiffs allege that Mayfield Consumer Products required the 110 employees at the factory Friday night to work even though the company "knew or should have known about the expected tornado and the danger of serious bodily injuries and death to its employees if its employees were required to remain at its place of business during the pendency of the expected tornado."

The lawsuit also invoked a claim the company has contested: That it refused to let workers leave the night of the tornado and threatened to fire them if they did so.

The company "showed flagrant indifference to the rights" of employees "with a subjective awareness that such conduct will result in human death and/or bodily injuries," the lawsuit reads.

As part of the lawsuit, the plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, prejudgment and post-judgment interests, attorney’s fees, and "a trial by jury on all issues so triable."

Claims in a lawsuit represent only one side of a case. Mayfield Consumer Products spokesman Bob Ferguson told The Courier Journal Wednesday evening that "we haven't even received the lawsuit officially and we need time to review it."

'I'm alive. The house is gone.':Harrowing stories from those who survived deadly Kentucky tornadoes

Ferguson has repeatedly denied claims about Mayfield Consumer Products threatening employees and refusing to let them leave, calling them "incredibly false."

“Employees can go home at any time without any penalty,” Ferguson previously told The Courier Journal. “Since COVID has made it so difficult to find employees, we have mended our practices.

"If someone comes to work, and three hours into the shift, they say ‘I want to go home,’ they're free to go home without penalties, and they can come back to work the next day and start.”

Meanwhile, Jones, the plaintiffs' attorney, recently said he has "corroborating recorded evidence" that candle factory workers were told they could lose their jobs if they left Friday before the tornado, but he declined to share it.

The attorney will guest host a live radio dial-in program on Washington, D.C.-area station WGBR Friday at 7 p.m., where he said Mayfield Consumer Products factory survivors will "share their accounts of being supervised into injurious submission while witnessing the deaths of colleagues."

The lawsuit was filed hours after United States President Joe Biden traveled to western Kentucky Wednesday to survey tornado damages in some of the commonwealth's hardest-hit communities. As of Wednesday, 75 people died as a result of the tornadoes and more than 100 were still missing.

Contact Ben Tobin on Twitter @Ben__Tobin.