Fatal blast victim’s family will receive $322,936 ; Blast: Defendants ordered to pay insurance company

Lucinia Tolliver's family will receive about $323,000 of a $709,000 settlement reached in a lawsuit filed after her death from a January 2012 natural gas explosion at her southwest Topeka home.

Shawnee County District Judge Rebecca Crotty on Tuesday approved settlements and dismissed three lawsuits linked to the blast, which destroyed Tolliver's home at 1905 S.W. Navajo Lane and injured Lois Jones in her home next door at 1909 S.W. Navajo Lane.

Tolliver, 81, died four days after the explosion. She was a retired composing room employee of The Topeka Capital-Journal.

Lawsuits were subsequently filed on behalf of Tolliver's estate and her daughter, Erin Gayle Thurston; American Family Mutual Insurance, Tolliver's insurance carrier; and Jones.

Listed as defendants in all three suits were Kansas Gas Service and Glen Niehues, doing business as Wetmore-based N-Line Lawn Service. The suit filed by Tolliver's estate and Thurston listed one other defendant, James Ellis.

The suits contended N-Line negligently broke a KGS pipeline while digging to install lawn sprinkler systems for residential use, and KGS breached its duty to protect the public from explosions resulting from its operation of underground facilities. The suit by Tolliver's estate and Thurston contended Ellis, working for Factory Direct Appliance, then acted unreasonably by leaving alone after he smelled natural gas in Tolliver's home.

Shawnee County District judges in February ordered the cases temporarily consolidated.

Attorney Thomas Ruzicka, representing Tolliver's estate and Thurston, filed a motion May 13 asking Crotty to approve a wrongful death settlement -- which she subsequently approved -- through which the defendants would pay $709,000, which included:

- $322,936.19 to Tolliver's estate and Thurston.

- $217,561.81 to American Family Insurance.

- $161,226 to the Olathe-based Hubbard, Ruzicka, Kreamer & Kincaid, LC, the legal firm representing Tolliver's estate.

- $7,276 to cover expenses the law firm incurred.

Documents available Tuesday from the Shawnee District Court Clerk's office on Friday didn't show the individual amounts paid by each defendant, or say how much the defendants would pay to Jones.