Osborn Machler & Neff Calls on Nippon to Clarify Claims That the Government Investigation Was Incomplete

SEATTLE, Sept. 02, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Attorneys at Osborn Machler & Neff (OMN), who represent the families of the workers killed and injured in the May 26 white liquor tank failure at the Nippon Dynawave paper mill in Longview, Washington, are calling on Nippon to publicly identify — in specific terms — what it believes the government's investigative report on the disaster got wrong.

The company issued a statement this week saying the report “failed to include important facts and context regarding actions taken by NDP and the timeline of events before the May 26th incident,” but offered no further explanation.

Attorney Simeon Osborn said Nippon owes the community more than a vague press statement if it believes the investigation is wrong.

“Tell the families of the eleven people who died which part of the record is inaccurate, and why,” Osborn said. “Anything less isn’t a correction; it’s a cynical attempt to obfuscate, and everyone can see it for what it is.”

Osborn's challenge follows reporting that Nippon's own inspectors flagged the tank that failed on May 26 as unfit for service on three separate occasions in the year before the catastrophe — warnings the company did not act on.

“This wasn’t an accident,” Osborn said. “Ten months before that tank killed Jared Ammons and ten of his coworkers, Nippon’s own inspector told them the tank was unfit for service. Not ‘risky.’ Not ‘worth watching.’ Unfit. And Nippon ran it anyway. They appear to have intentionally placed their workers in front of a tragedy they knew was bound to happen. That’s deplorable.”

Three separate inspections — in July, October and February — all reached the same conclusion, Osborn said, giving Nippon three chances to fix the tank, slow it down or shut it down. Nippon took none of them, which Osborn characterized as a damning pattern.

“Three inspections, three warnings and zero repairs,” Osborn added. “To my clients, this looks like a company that decided production mattered more than the people running it. From our vantage point it looks like Nippon intentionally put their workers in harm’s way by refusing to fund the necessary repairs.”

Jared Ammons went to work that morning trusting that the tank twenty feet from him had been maintained the way the law requires, Osborn said. “That trust was misplaced, and his family is left to live with what that cost.”

Osborn Machler & Neff continues to investigate the causes of the May 26 failure, which killed 11 workers and injured at least eight others, on behalf of the families affected.

About Osborn Machler & Neff

Osborn Machler & Neff (OMN) is a Seattle-based personal injury law firm representing individuals and families in catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases across Washington state. Learn more at osbornmachler.com.

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SOURCE: OSBORN MACHLER NEFF