Greene County jury finds for defense in Millwood country club fire

A Greene County jury took less than three hours to return a verdict for the defense in a case involving a kitchen fire at the Millwood Golf & Racquet Club in Springfield.

In the case filed in 2009, the operators of the country club sued SimplexGrinnell, which was retained by the club to perform semi-annual inspections of Millwood’s fire suppression system, said attorney Kristi Burmeister, of Shook Hardy & Bacon in Kansas City. She represented the defendant.

Burmeister said any time a case involves a fire, the defense pretty much “starts from behind the eight ball.”

“But I was optimistic going into the trial that we had a good defense,” Burmeister said.

The club’s fire suppression system included a detector designed to alert the club of a fire before it reached ductwork. On July 16, 2008, however, a cook at the club caused a flare-up that Burmeister said spread into Millwood’s ductwork.

Later, the operators of Millwood contended that the detector was improperly placed, preventing the system from proper operation.

Burmeister contended in her defense that the ducts in the club’s kitchen were so full of grease that even if the detection system installed by SimplexGrinnell had activated, that the fire would have spread and caused significant damage.

In the end, Burmeister said the jury agreed with SimplexGrinnell and, after less than three hours of deliberation, returned for the defense.

Russ Watters, of Brown & James in St. Louis, represented Millwood and confirmed the facts of the case.

Defense Verdict

Contracts/other

Venue: Greene County Circuit Court

Case Number/Date:0831-cv17080

Judge: J. Dan Conklin

Plaintiff’s Experts: Ronald Gronemeyer, St. Louis (fire cause and origin); Randy Wilson, St. Louis (accounting and economic damages); Scott Futrell, Osseo, Minn. (engineering)

Defendant’s Expert: Neil Wu, Baltimore (fire)

Last Pretrial Demand: $1.5 million

Last Pretrial Offer: $50,000

Caption: Millwood Golf & Racquet Club Inc. v. SimplexGrinnell LP

Plaintiff’s Attorneys: Russ Watters and Brad Hansmann, Brown & James, St. Louis

Defendant’s Attorneys: Charles Eblen and Kristi Burmeister, Shook Hardy & Bacon, Kansas City