YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A former employee of Chase Bank has filed a complaint against YO Properties 47 LLC and 10 other defendants stemming from the fatal blast last year at Realty Tower.
The complaint, submitted in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Oct. 28, was filed on behalf of Charles Worley Jr. and his wife, Courtney Worley, both of Mineral Ridge.
Court papers say that Charles Worley Jr. was working at Chase Bank on May 28, 2024, when an explosion caused by workers cutting into a natural gas line destroyed much of the ground floor where Chase Bank was located and the basement of Realty Tower. The building was eventually demolished.
YO Properties LLC was the owner of record of Realty Tower.
The lawsuit also names as defendants Greenheart Companies LLC, whose crew was performing demolition work in the building; LY Property Management LLC, which managed the building; The East Ohio Gas Co., doing business as Enbridge Gas Co., as well as its former name, Dominion Energy Ohio; Enbridge Alternative Fuel LLC, formerly DEO Alternative Fuel LLC; Enbridge U.S. Gas Distribution LLC, formerly Dominion Gas Distribution LLC; Enbridge EOG Holdings II, formerly Dominion Energy Questar Co.; Enbridge EOG Holdings LLC; Enbridge Genoa U.S Holdings LLC; Enbridge (U.S) Inc.; and Enbridge Pipelines (Toledo) Inc. as defendants.
The complaint alleges that YO Properties, Greenheart and LY Property Management “negligently failed to supervise or otherwise control the inherently dangerous work being conducted on the subject premises.”
The resulting explosion left Charles Worley with “severe traumatic injuries, including comminuted and displaced fractures to his nasal bones, acute compression fractures and other injuries to his lumbar spine, and comminuted and displaced fractures to his left foot,” court papers say.
According to the lawsuit, some of these injuries are permanent. The complaint demands unspecified punitive damages and a jury trial.
In August, the National Transportation Safety Board determined that “the probable cause of the explosion and subsequent fatality was a cut by a scrap-removal crew into an active Enbridge Inc. service line, which was incorrectly documented as having been abandoned years earlier by the pipeline owner at the time, Dominion Energy Inc.,” which allowed natural gas to leak into the building where an unknown source ignited it, the report said.
NTSB’s findings also said that Chase Bank’s emergency procedures – which did not require immediate evacuation of the building in the case of a natural gas leak – contributed “to the severity of the accident.”
The May 28, 2024, explosion killed Akil Drake, 27, a Chase Bank employee, and injured several others.
At the time of the explosion, Enbridge had acquired the assets of Dominion Ohio.
The complaint alleges that the Enbridge entities are also liable for the explosion, alleging that they failed to provide the Realty Tower owners, management and the salvage crew reliable and accurate information regarding the status of the natural gas line that served the building.
Numerous other complaints have been filed in the wake of the explosion, naming many of the same entities as defendants.
Pictured at top: A Chase Bank sign is seen on the Realty Tower after the May 28, 2024, explosion at the building.