Chambliss fights subpoena in sugar explosion lawsuit

Savannah —- Attorneys argued Tuesday before a Superior Court judge about whether U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss has legal immunity from being questioned in a lawsuit against Imperial Sugar over the deadly explosion at its Georgia refinery.

Savannah attorney Mark Tate, who represents families of six employees killed in the blast and five injured workers, wants to ask Chambliss if the company sought his help to discredit a whistle-blower and discourage workers from suing.

“He injected himself into this litigation,” Tate told Superior Court Judge Hermann Coolidge. “Just because he’s a senator does not mean he can’t be deposed.”

But a Senate attorney argued that the Constitution does give a senator immunity from answering questions about his official duties, and asked the judge to throw out a subpoena Tate sent to Chambliss last fall.

Chambliss, a Republican from Moultrie, is not a defendant in any of the 39 civil lawsuits filed against Imperial Sugar since the Feb. 7, 2008, explosion at the company’s refinery in Port Wentworth, outside Savannah. Investigators blamed the blast on sugar dust that ignited like gunpowder, killing 14 people and injuring dozens more.

Tate says Chambliss overstepped his role as a government official by coming to the company’s defense during a Senate hearing on the explosion last July and at a meeting Chambliss had with Imperial Sugar workers last summer.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed $8.7 million in fines against Imperial Sugar in July for safety violations at the Georgia refinery and another plant in Gramercy, La.