Georgia’s Chicken Plants Have No Excuse to Ignore Safety Concerns

• January 23, 2025
• Attorney Matt Stoddard
• Premises Liability

Poultry is big business here in Georgia. It’s a cornerstone of our state economy, and chicken plants enjoy positions as key employers in several Georgia cities.

Unfortunately, this gives big poultry companies a great deal of power to play fast and loose with the safety of Georgia residents, and to continue with business as usual no matter what problems come up. Everyone needs these plants to keep running. Livelihoods depend on them. People are understandably willing to compromise a great deal to make this happen, and the poultry industry knows it. There’s very little to stop poultry companies from exploiting this position of power to keep their own profits flowing at all costs, and avoid ever reckoning with their mistakes.

Civil litigation is one of the few tools available to help victims of poultry industry negligence push back.

Poultry companies are responsible for the workplace safety of thousands of employees, the environmental safety of whole communities, and the food safety of millions of consumers around the world. That’s an enormous amount of trust, and these companies have a legal and moral duty to honor it — not take it for granted.

The Camilla Tyson Plant Explosion Killed a Visitor and Injured Several Workers

Late on the night of December 26th, 2024, a boiler exploded inside the Tyson chicken plant in Camilla, Georgia. The blast knocked an exterior wall outward and onto the cab of a nearby tractor-trailer.

A 61-year-old woman named Bajarma Batozhatov was resting in the truck’s sleeper compartment at the time. Rescue crews used heavy machinery to move the rubble and search for her, but they were only able to recover her remains. Autopsy results indicate that she was likely killed instantly in the blast.

Her husband, Tcyden Batozhatov, was inside the building during the incident but was not injured. He was making a stop at the plant as part of his work as a trucker. Neither of the Batoshatovs were employed by Tyson.

The explosion also started a fire in the plant, which burned for approximately three hours before being extinguished. Several workers suffered burn injuries, and two required hospital care.

Some Employees Were Reportedly Back to Work Before the Smoke Cleared

A Tyson representative announced on January 7th that the plant had “resumed full operations.” The company has been less talkative, however, about when and to what extent it ceased operations in the first place.

Tyson’s initial public statement, released within hours of the explosion, promised a full investigation coordinated with local authorities, but did not specifically mention plant closures.

Meanwhile, neighbors of the plant reported that some employees were back at work as soon as the next day, in spite of the smell of smoke still being thick in the air. The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, which represents the plant’s employees, also released a statement that day, emphasizing that “there must be a thorough investigation into this incident, and workers must be able to work safely in the facility.”

Although the union’s statement did not directly criticize Tyson’s handling of the accident, both Tyson and the union acknowledged that they did not yet have all the facts about what caused the boiler to explode.

Assuming that the reports are accurate, and that some operations did resume on the 27th, it’s difficult to imagine that Tyson could have completely ruled out ongoing safety threats on the property first.

Not Being a Tyson Employee Is Actually an Advantage in a Lawsuit

Like all businesses with physical premises, Tyson is legally responsible for making sure those premises are reasonably safe for guests.

Technically, as an employer, Tyson is also responsible for maintaining a reasonably safe workplace. However, the foibles of worker’s comp law make this responsibility more challenging to enforce.

Under worker’s comp law, employers are immune to almost all personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits from employees and their families. Instead, injured employees and bereaved families can collect compensation through the worker’s comp system itself. Collecting worker’s comp is usually quicker and easier than filing a lawsuit, because it doesn’t require any proof of fault. The downside, however, is that worker’s comp settlements are much smaller than what a court would typically award for the same incident.

So, essentially, when a worker is injured at a Tyson plant, Tyson is on the hook for the same relatively small amount of money, regardless of whether the plant’s safety standards were nearly perfect or grossly negligent.

Employer immunity to civil lawsuits only applies to the employer/employee relationship, however. Anyone not employed by Tyson who suffers harm as a result of Tyson’s negligence has the right to sue the company as normal.

This means that, depending on what exactly caused the boiler explosion, Tcyden Batozhatov might well have a case against Tyson for the wrongful death of his wife.

Injured Employees May Still Be Able to Collect Full Compensation

Even though Tyson is immune to personal injury lawsuits from its employees, that doesn’t mean the injured survivors of the explosion necessarily have to settle for the partial compensation available through worker’s comp.

People injured on the job still have the right to sue anyone who contributed to their injuries, other than their direct employer. So, in the case of the Tyson boiler explosion, the survivors might be able to sue:

• The boiler’s manufacturer.
• The contractor who installed the boiler.
• The maintenance company that services the boiler.
• Any safety inspectors or consultants who declared the boiler safe.

Filing a lawsuit against a third party does not interfere with an injured worker’s right to collect worker’s comp. It’s fine to pursue both sources of compensation for the same incident.

There are also a few exceptions that may allow injured workers to sue their employers. The most common one is a denied worker’s comp claim. When an employer refuses to pay for an injured employee’s worker’s comp benefits, that employer is also waiving their own immunity and allowing the employee to pursue the matter through litigation.

The Stoddard Firm Is Passionate About Fighting for Industrial Accident Victims

It’s a sad truth that victims of corporate negligence almost never receive fair compensation for their injuries, unless they get expert legal help. The Stoddard Firm exists to provide that help.

The only thing more important to us than holding powerful companies accountable is getting survivors and grieving families the best possible settlement, so that they can move forward with the support they need. That’s why we independently investigate each case, examining the role of all possible defendants, from the obvious to the easily overlooked.

If you are Tcyden Batozhatov, or if you were injured in the Camilla Tyson explosion, please feel free to reach out by phone or chat to go over your options in more detail.