Dallas Settles for $600,000 in Lawsuit Over Firefighter's 2018 Death

Jan. 9, 2025

David Walters' family claimed that the exposures he faced during a 19-year career with Dallas Fire Rescue lead to his death.

By Everton Bailey Jr.

Source The Dallas Morning News

The City of Dallas settled with Kristi Walters, wife of Dallas firefighter David Walters, and his three sons over his 2018 death.

The Dallas City Council on Wednesday approved allowing a $600,000 settlement to resolve a lawsuit filed by the family of a city firefighter denied workers’ compensation benefits after his death.

The wife and three sons of David Walters asserted in a June 2021 lawsuit that chemicals — like carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter — he was exposed to and inhaled during his 19 years as a Dallas firefighter led to heart-related diseases that contributed to his sudden cardiac death in November 2018 while on vacation with his family. He was 49 when he died.

The lawsuit challenged a January 2021 administrative law judge’s decision that Walters didn’t sustain a compensable injury from an “occupational disease” that killed him. An appeal panel of the Texas Department of Insurance Division of Workers’ Compensation upheld the administrative law judge’s decision in April 2021.

A notice related to the lawsuit was filed in December, saying representatives from the city and the Walters family anticipated settling within 60 days. A dismissal hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 24, online Dallas County court records show.

The City Council approved allowing the $600,000 settlement without discussion Wednesday. Attorneys representing the family and the city didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

Kristi Walters told The Dallas Morning News in 2019 the city notified her days after her husband’s death that she and their then-three teenage sons would be cut off from the city’s health insurance plan.

The family was referred to COBRA health insurance, more than doubling David’s health insurance premium. If he had died while on the job, then his family would have qualified for line-of-duty death benefits through the city, and it would have included continuing their health insurance benefits.

According to the lawsuit, a medical examiner determined four months after Walters’ death that he died of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and coronary artery disease along with narrowed coronary arteries, pulmonary congestion and edema.

In its initial response to the Walters family’s lawsuit, the city denied all allegations made in the legal petition.