Power Lines Didn’t Cause Girl’s Rare Cancer, Jury Finds : Health: Panel rejects couple’s suit seeking nearly $1 million in damages against San Diego Gas & Electric Co. Firm’s attorneys hail decision.

A jury Friday rejected the claims of a couple whose 5 1/2-year-old daughter incurred a rare form of cancer that they contended was caused by electromagnetic fields triggered by a tangle of power lines overlooking their suburban home.

In the first U.S. case in which a public utility had been faced with a charge of negligence stemming from electromagnetic fields, attorneys for San Diego Gas & Electric Co. called the verdict a major victory.

“My hope is that individuals thinking about filing this type of lawsuit will think a second time in light of this,” said San Francisco-based lawyer Duncan Barr, who tried the case for SDG & E.

Barr said the jury’s verdict proves that “electromagnetic fields don’t harm people,” although the panel was never asked to determine whether power lines had created a childhood cancer so rare that fewer than 100 cases have been documented worldwide.

With one member voting in favor of the couple, the jury found that SDG & E had not been negligent in failing to warn Ted Zuidema, 33, and his wife, Michele, 31, about possible dangers stemming from electromagnetic fields, or EMF.

The Zuidemas’ daughter, Mallory, who developed the condition known as Wilm’s tumor when she was 10 months old, has been in remission since shortly after the couple left the home in early 1990.

The Zuidemas’ attorneys presented evidence showing that SDG & E scientist John Dawsey concluded in a 1986 report that serious consideration should be given to the utility conducting an exhaustive analysis of the dangers of EMF and possibly warning its customers.

On a separate count, the jury found by a vote of 10 to 2 that SDG & E “had not maintained a nuisance” by operating high-voltage power lines within 15 feet of the couple’s former home in the suburb of Serra Mesa, on the bluffs overlooking San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Nine jurors had to vote the same way for a decision in the civil case.

Sobbing and shaking, Michele Zuidema told reporters outside the courtroom that despite the verdict, other plaintiffs in other cities will follow her lead.

“The public has got to stand up and say, ‘We’re not going to let them pull the wool over our eyes any more,’ ” she said. “It’s up to the public to see this for what it is. I don’t believe I’m the only one who sees this for what it is.

“The utility companies cannot say anymore that there’s no proof. I call on them to stand up and take responsibility. We’re talking about our children here. . . . Do we really want to play Russian roulette with our children?”

Michael Withey, the couple’s Seattle-based environmental lawyer, said the verdict should not deter other plaintiffs from bringing similar actions.

“The jury found that SDG & E wasn’t negligent and that they failed to cause a nuisance in the Zuidema home,” he said. “Nothing more. . . . The medical and scientific communities are operating on the assumption that power lines do cause childhood cancers.”

Withey said he and the Zuidemas had not yet decided whether to appeal the verdict.

Juror Jessica Fitzpatrick, 24, a sales clerk in a department store, said she had voted in favor of the Zuidemas on the issue of whether the utility had created a nuisance.

“I felt that they really believed there was a problem, and in their minds, they felt that they had to get out of the house, and that was a nuisance--to have to move,” Fitzpatrick said.

Juror Karl J. Sauter, who could not be reached for comment, found in favor of the couple on both counts.

Fitzpatrick and juror Maxine Lynch, 36, asked to speak privately to the Zuidemas after the verdicts were read.

“I felt that they deserved to know why we came up with what we came up with,” Lynch said. “This verdict should in no way diminish the pain that the Zuidemas have gone through. However, we felt that (SDG & E) didn’t cause the pain. We felt it was something that just happened.

“Based on the facts we saw in the case, and considering the credibility of the witnesses, we felt there wasn’t a link between EMF and the cancers,” she said.

The Zuidemas had asked for almost $1 million in compensatory damages. No punitive damages were sought.

The Zuidemas’ former home sits beneath six high-voltage power lines and six electrical distribution lines with a load of about 230,000 volts. A step-down transformer, thought to be critical in generating EMF, was 12 feet above the roof.

Mallory’s first operation was in 1989, but almost a year later, seven tumors the size of golf balls were removed from her kidneys. An independent test later revealed radiation as high as 20 milligauss, whereas most homes have a level of no more than 0.5 milligauss, the unit used to measure magnetic fields.