Jury Awards $2 Million to Injured Man

A Canyon Country man who lost his foot after accidentally hitting a high-tension electrical wire with a concrete stacking machine has been awarded more than $2 million by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury.

Jurors in the court of Judge Betty Jo Sheldon assessed damages in the civil suit brought by Roger Newman, 41, at $3,209,675.

They held, in a 10-2 vote Thursday, that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was 50% responsible for the accident and that Spaulding Equipment Co. of San Juan Capistrano, manufacturer of the machine, was 15% responsible. The city and the company will share joint responsibility for paying Newman $2,086,288.

Division of Responsibility

Jurors also decided that Newman was 25% responsible for his own injuries and that his employer, a family-owned business in Sun Valley called Newman & Sons was 10% liable. So the total $3.2 million verdict was reduced by that proportion.

The employer, which could not be sued, has paid its share through worker’s compensation.

Michael J. Piuze, attorney for Newman, said the man normally operates a skiploader but was asked to substitute on the stacking machine when the accident occurred Sept. 19, 1979.

Newman was stacking pieces of concrete when the machine, which reaches more than two stories high, struck the 30-foot-high, 34.5-kilovolt wire.

Left Foot Amputated

As a result of the electric shock, Newman had to have his left foot amputated and had plastic surgery on his right arm and hand.

Piuze said the city was sued because DWP officials had failed, as required by law, to warn the company that potential contact between the machine and the wire could result in disaster.

Spaulding was sued because of failure to place warning signs on the machine or to inform the employer of potential dangers, Piuze said.

Newman, married and the father of two, missed eight months of work because of his injuries. Piuze said he has now returned to work operating a skiploader.

‘Clearly Excessive’

Assistant City Atty. Maynard Asper, who represented the DWP, said Friday that the verdict was “clearly excessive and erroneous and well outside the evidence.”

He said he anticipates asking Sheldon to set aside the verdict and grant a new trial, the first step in the appeal process. But the final decision rests with the Board of Water and Power Commissioners, Asper said.

The manufacturer’s attorneys could not be reached for comment.