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The family of two girls who died after exterminators used a potent poison at their home have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the pest-control company and the man who applied the pesticide.
The suit filed in 2nd District Court by Brenda and Nathan Toone and their surviving children alleges that the owners of Bugman Pest and Lawn and employee Coleman Nocks are liable for last year's deaths of two of the Toones' daughters, Rebecca, 4, and Rachel, 15 months.
"The Toone family intends to see that those responsible for this tragedy are held fully accountable, both within the criminal- and civil-justice system," the family said through its lawyer, Peter Summerill.
"The Toone family continues to have confidence in this country's legal system and will support the efforts of the government officials responsible for prosecuting criminal cases, while also pursuing a civil claim through their own attorneys."
The family is seeking unspecified damages, claiming negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, nuisance and abnormally dangerous activity.
Nocks was working for Bugman Pest and Lawn on Feb. 5, 2010, when he applied a pesticide called Fumitoxin at the Toone home to kill field mice. The girls, their 7-year-old brother, their 9-year-old sister and their father became ill with severe flulike symptoms that weekend.
Within four days, Rebecca and Rachel died after their hearts shut down, according to the suit.
Nocks, 63, and Bugman Pest and Lawn owner Ray Wilson Sr. pleaded not guilty to three counts of unlawful use of a registered pesticide in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City on Feb. 25.
Nocks and Wilson's firm are charged in that case with using too much Fumitoxin and applying it too close to the Toone home and, on two other occasions in the preceding six months, at homes in Centerville and North Salt Lake.
Charges in that case could result in up to three years in prison and fines of up to $450,000 for Nocks and fines of as much as $900,000 for Bugman Pest and Lawn.
Both Wilson and Nocks said they hadn't been served with the wrongful-death lawsuit as of Thursday morning.
The attorney handling the pesticide charges for Bugman, Dennis James, said the company's insurer will determine how to handle the wrongful-death lawsuit.
Nocks said that his attorney in the federal case was appointed by the court. He isn't sure how he'll deal with the civil case.
"All my financial resources are gone," he said.
The Toones' lawsuit doesn't name state and federal pesticide regulators as defendants, but it does name "John Does 1-5" as potential defendants who "negligently trained, supervised or otherwise oversaw" Nocks' work and whose "actions, negligence and reckless disregard directly and proximately caused physical injury" to the family.
The suit also notes that Nocks didn't provide the Toones with a written warning about the pesticide, which is required by state and federal law whenever Fumitoxin is used.