NEW CUMBERLAND – A wrongful death lawsuit against New Cumberland metals recycler AL Solutions Inc. is scheduled to go to trial in September 2016.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs – the estates of Steven Swain and New Cumberland brothers James Eugene Fish and Jeffrey Scott Fish – and the defendants – AL Solutions and the New York-based private equity firm BlackRock Capital Investment Corp. – met with Hancock County Circuit Court Judge Ronald E. Wilson on Monday to hash out a trial schedule.

Wilson said the jury trial would start on Sept. 8, 2016, and that he would leave most of that month open in case the trial goes long.

The start date is nearly six years after Swain, 27, of Weirton, James Fish, 38, and Jeffrey Fish, 39, were killed in an explosion at AL Solutions’ New Cumberland processing plant on South Chester Street. The Fish brothers were pronounced dead at the scene, and Swain succumbed to injuries he suffered in the blast four days later in a Pittsburgh hospital.

The men’s estates filed wrongful death lawsuits against the company in May 2011, and lawyers for the families have been trying to bring the cases to trial ever since.

“We’re hopeful that we’ll eventually get justice for the families of the decedents,” attorney Eric Frankovitch, who is representing the Swain family, said outside the Hancock County Courthouse on Monday.

AL Solutions, whose corporate offices remain in New Cumberland, recycles titanium and zirconium raw materials for use as alloying additives by aluminum producers. The materials are formed into Ty-Gem and Zy-Gem compacts, or pucks, using a proprietary process, according to the company’s website.

The lawsuit notes that five workers died as a result of explosions or fires at AL Solutions since 1995.

The plant’s owners “were aware of the inherently and abnormally dangerous conditions associated with the processing and/or manufacturing operations (at AL Solutions),” but “failed to take appropriate action,” according to court documents filed by Mark Colantonio, one of the attorneys representing the Fish family.

According to BlackRock’s website, the management investment company is publicly traded on Nasdaq and has capital resources exceeding $1.1 billion.

Wilson spent most of Monday’s hearing spelling out the rules for how to proceed prior to trial.

Lawyers for both sides may not seek any evidentiary hearings for any issues of law after February 2016, and they must submit their proposed jury instructions by Aug. 4, 2016, Wilson said.

No summary judgment motions may be filed after April 2016, although a motion to dismiss the complaint is still pending before Wilson. Attorneys for both sides have already filed their expert witness lists.

Wilson also advised the lawyers to use the rules of civil procedure to resolve as many issues as they can prior to the trial.

In addition to the lawsuits, the December 2010 accident triggered investigations by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

AL Solutions reached a settlement with the EPA and OSHA in early 2014, requiring the company to, among other things, pay a $100,000 civil penalty to the EPA and a $97,000 penalty to the U.S. Department of Labor.

As part of its settlement with the EPA and OSHA, AL Solutions also resolved a host of issues pertaining to the storage of metals on-site in New Cumberland – issues that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had noted as violations in previous inspections.

In July 2014, the Chemical Safety Board concluded that the fatal explosion was caused by combustible titanium and zirconium dusts that were processed at the New Cumberland facility. Subsequent testing done on zirconium and titanium samples determined that the materials were combustible and were capable of causing an explosion when lofted near heat or an ignition source, the board’s report said.

Meeting in Charleston, three and a half years after the accident, the board said AL Solutions had failed to properly maintain blender equipment, did not have an effective dust collection program and used a water deluge system that may have contributed to the explosion.

The Chemical Safety Board used its report on the New Cumberland accident to, once again, call on the federal government to promulgate more stringent rules on the use and handling of combustible dust.

Since the fatal accident, AL Solutions has moved most of its processing operations from New Cumberland to a new facility in Burgettstown. It also operates a raw material consolidation and preparation facility in Washington, Mo., according to its website.

Pursuant to a draw-down order by the state DEP, AL Solutions may now bring only the following to the New Cumberland facility: finished product (titanium puck and briquettes) for storage, drying and packaging; and limited samples of raw materials to be analyzed in the lab.

(Huba can be contacted at shuba@reviewonline.com)