Glendale to Pay $1 Million to Worker Jolted by Cable

Glendale has agreed to pay $1 million--the largest settlement of a lawsuit in the city’s history--to a former gas company employee who was severely burned when he dug into an underground municipal power cable.

City Atty. Frank R. Manzano said the City Council agreed to the out-of-court settlement because the city could have paid “10 times as much” if the suit, filed by Bobby Stoker, 46, had been decided by a jury sympathetic to the employee.

The settlement was approved Wednesday by Burbank Superior Court Judge Gary Klausner.

Stoker was disabled and a co-worker was killed when they were digging a gas-line trench for a new apartment complex at 233 N. Isabel St. in July, 1985. Stoker’s attorney, Christopher E. Angelo, said 4,100

volts ran through Stoker’s body. “His heart stopped,” Angelo said.

Angelo said Stoker, an Altadena resident with a wife and 12-year-old son, was severely burned and lost the use of his right shoulder. Stoker, who watched his co-worker die, was emotionally devastated by the accident, Angelo said.

Manzano said of Stoker: “According to the psychiatric reports, he’ll never be able to work again.”

Glendale officials did not admit liability in the settlement. But Angelo said the city was negligent because it did not mark the spot where power lines were buried.

Richard Bergman, 23, of Sun Valley was killed in the accident. The city still faces a wrongful death suit filed by Bergman’s family.