Lee T Ostrom

Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

CORE vs PSCo - May 2022 till November 2023 - Breached Contract and Negligence. I provided human factors/industrial safety support to plaintiff’s counsel. The jury said when interviewed that the human factors testimony I provided helped to persuade their decision. A synopsis of the lawsuit is below: On Oct. 25, a Denver district court jury found in favor of CORE in its lawsuit against Public Service Company of Colorado, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy Inc. (Xcel), regarding the mismanagement of the Comanche Unit 3 coal-fired power plant. CORE was awarded $26.45 million for lengthy outages on 2020 and 2022 caused by Xcel’s imprudent operations and negligence. 2022-Employee injury case. Two employees of a fish procession plant were repairing a conveyor system that was not properly locked out. The two employees entered a confined space called a fish dump with the knowledge of the supervisor. The employees contacted the actuator, and their legs were severely injured. I do not know the resolution to this case. 2022-Carpentar suing for his job back. I supplied information concerning the ergonomic issues that would preclude him from continuing to work. This was settled out of court. 2022-Snowblower product liability case. I am provided a report on the inherent safety issues with snow blowers. A dentist lost his right index finger clearing the chute. He confirmed the primary impeller was not moving when he stuck his hand in to clean the chute. This case was arbitrated to the benefit of the plaintiff. 2021- Lawnmower product liability case. In this case the lawnmower failed to stop when the operator released the bail and he attempted to pull the spark plug. The spark plug is right above the engine’s 400+ oF exhaust pipe. As a precaution, he bent over the top of mower to pull the plug and slipped, his hand slipped under the mower, and he lost three fingers. This case was arbitrated to the benefit of the plaintiff. 2019 – Gas to Wood Fireplace Explosion Report – This was a complicated case in which an owner of the house had a gas fireplace converted to wood, but the contractor did not have the gas supply blocked off. That owner defaulted on the loan and the original owner took back possession of the house – he was a physician. The physician rented the house out, soon after taking back possession. The first renters tried to light the fireplace without instructions and thought that it was a gas assist fireplace. They opened the gas valve and gas accumulated in the area behind the fireplace and an explosion occurred, killing 4 people. My report was about how the contractor failed in his duty to do the job correctly. The original owner had no knowledge of the faulty installation. As I understand it, the report helped. 2019 – Fire extinguisher installation report – A fire extinguisher was not properly mounted, and it fell off a wall and broke an employee’s foot. My report discussed the fasteners used to hold the fire extinguisher to the wall and that they were not strong enough to hold the weight of the fire extinguisher. I do not know the outcome. 2018 – Peanut Butter Allergy - Chantel Giacalone vs Mandalay Bay. Rebuttal report for the plaintive concerning failure of the convention center to label food allergens. The defense was claiming that if the peanut butter containing food was labeled it would not have made a difference. My report rebutted that argument. The plaintive won for $29 million. 2017/2018 – Ergonomic and Safety Assessment of BNSF Railroad Gravel Truck. I wrote a report and was deposed. In this case a truck operator fell while getting into the truck bed to shovel gravel. The ladder was not adequately designed to allow safe access and egress. The plaintive won this case.