A federal judge on Friday ordered Texas to pay $1 million in damages after a Texas high school janitor died in a workplace explosion, and two of the company’s employees are awaiting trial.
In addition, Texas will pay $100,000 in penalties to two employees who were on duty at the time of the Jan. 12 explosion in the town of Nacogdoches, the U.S. District Court in Texas said.
The explosion was caused by a power surge caused by wiring and other problems.
In a separate lawsuit filed on Friday, the federal judge in Dallas ordered the two workers to be held in custody for 18 months and ordered them to pay damages of at least $200,000 to the state of Texas.
In the lawsuit, the state said the workers did not have a job security agreement and were under supervision by an employee who had been suspended and transferred.
The workers had worked for a company that was being investigated for negligence.
In an interview, Texas Attorney General David Dewhurst said the two men had worked in the same building and the Janitors’ union said that there was no conflict of interest in the workers being on the same payroll.
The lawsuit said the Janitorial Protective Association, which represents the workers, has called for the men’s release.
Texas is one of several states that have been hit with lawsuits in recent years, with some cases filed by employees of the same company.
The company’s lawyers say the workers had not been required to sign a contract and that they were only on the job for about a week when they were working on the power surge.
Texas has faced a number of power-outage related deaths, including a teenager who was crushed to death in January.
The U.N. estimates that more than 100,000 people have died because of power outages across the United States.