A judge has denied a company’s motion to enforce a settlement agreement regarding a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of the mother of a 4-year-old girl who lost both parents in a 2021 Georgia poultry plant gas leak that claimed six lives and injured nearly 50 others. The girl, Ximena Sophia Vera, is also a plaintiff in the suit, which was brought by the estate of her mother, Nelly Gizel Perez-Rafael.
Matt Cook (clockwise from top left), Nathan Nicholson, Kate Cook and Josh Bearden of the Cook Law Group in Gainesville. (Courtesy photos)The incident happened Jan. 28, 2021, when a Messer-owned immersion freezer at Gainesville’s Foundation Food Group poultry plant had an allegedly defective bubbler tube that allowed an overflow of liquid nitrogen in a freezer tank, sucking all the oxygen out of the air and causing the workers in the room to asphyxiate.