Amazon filed a motion to permanently transfer to Madison County a post-traumatic stress disorder lawsuit filed by the highest ranking employee at an Edwardsville warehouse when a deadly tornado struck the building in December 2021.
Amazon Logistics filed the motion to transfer plaintiff Juliann Gerecke’s lawsuit based on forum non conveniens to Madison County on Feb. 9 through attorney Lindsay Gilmore of Thompson Coburn LLP in Belleville.
Amazon argues that Gerecke was the highest ranking Amazon employee working at the Edwardsville Amazon delivery station on Dec. 10, 2021, when the facility was struck by a tornado and partially destroyed.
In a memorandum in support of the motion to transfer, Gilmore wrote that Gerecke would have been responsible for implementing the emergency action procedures.
“Her efforts to shepherd people to safety when the tornado warning occurred resulted in dozens of people, including herself, reaching the Severe Weather Assembly Area in the north part of the building when the tornado hit the south part,” Gilmore wrote.
Amazon claims Madison County is the appropriate venue for Gerecke’s claims.
“Plaintiff lives in Macoupin County but filed her lawsuit in St. Clair County,” the motion states. “Plaintiff’s lawsuit was consolidated with the other tornado cases in Madison County for pretrial purposes,” but the defendant seeks to transfer to Madison County for its entirety.
“To the extent any deference remains, plaintiff’s decision to forum shop and file in a county where she does not live and where the underlying event did not take place should erase any deference owed to her forum choice under Illinois law,” Gilmore wrote.
Gerecke originally filed her complaint in St. Clair County Circuit Court through attorney Gregory Shevlin of Cook Bartholomew Shevlin Cook & Jones LLP in Belleville. The suit was filed against Amazon Logistics Inc., Gateway East 9B Owner LLC, Contegra Construction Company LLC, McNealy Engineering Inc., Affton Fabricating & Welding Co., Cassidy Construction Company Inc., and Quality Testing and Engineering Inc.
According to her complaint, Gerecke claims the defendants should have known that the “tilt-up construction” used to construct the Amazon center in Edwardsville was unsafe after a similar facility collapsed in Baltimore. She argues that an EF-1 tornado touched down near Baltimore on Nov. 2, 2018, and struck an Amazon fulfillment center with the same construction design as the facility in Edwardsville. Two individuals were killed when the Baltimore building collapsed.
“The tornado blew off the roof of the fulfillment center, causing a 50-foot section of 8-inch concrete wall to collapse toward the interior of the building, killing two of the employee/contractors present,” the suit states.
“Each of the defendants and all of them knew or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known that the November 2, 2018, tornado event in Baltimore, Maryland and other similar events across the country, demonstrated the problems posed by the ‘tilt-up construction’ methods when faced with severe winds and tornadic weather events, as well as the need for safe rooms, shelter areas, and/or best available refugee areas for employees and contractors to take shelter in the event of severe weather,” it continues.
Then on Dec. 10, 2021, an EF-3 tornado struck the Amazon delivery station in Edwardsville at approximately 8:28 p.m. As a result, parts of the building’s walls collapsed.
Six employees were killed in the collapse, including Larry Virden, 46, Austin McEwen, 26, Kevin D. Dickey, 62, Clayton Lynn Cope, 29, Etheria S. Hebb, 34, and Deandre Morrow, 28.
Gerecke claims she was placed in the zone of danger, causing her to suffer severe and permanently disabling injuries, including “post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental and physical sequelae of the incident.”
In their answers to the complaint and affirmative defenses, the defendants argue that the plaintiff’s injuries were caused by circumstances or events over which they had no control and by an unavoidable act of God.
They also claim the plaintiff caused her own injuries by failing to take proper precautions.
Quality Testing and Engineering answered the complaint on Jan. 2 through attorney James Koehler of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in Chicago.
Contegra Construction answered the complaint on Jan. 5 through attorney Robert Duckels of Greensfelder Hemker & Gale PC in St. Louis.
Cassidy Construction answered the complaint on Jan. 10 through attorney Kenneth Halvachs of Halvachs & Abernathy LLC in Belleville.
Gateway East 9B answered the complaint on Jan. 24 through attorney Andrew Ryan of Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard PC in Edwardsville.
McNealy Engineering answered the complaint on Jan. 25 through attorney Nicholas Meriage of Pitzer Snodgrass PC in St. Louis.
Amazon Logistics Inc. answered the complaint on Feb. 12 through attorney Gilmore.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 23-LA-1335